Validation of a single‐nucleotide polymorphism panel for parentage testing of farmed red deer

Summary Red deer behaviour prevents the accurate physical matching of dams to fawns and, therefore, breeders have to rely on DNA ‐based parentage testing. A panel consisting of 100 single nucleotide polymorphism markers, with an average minor allele frequency of 0.25, was able to resolve 92% of fawns to both parents. In comparison, an existing 12‐marker microsatellite panel was able to resolve 68% of fawns to both parents. When excluding dam DNA information, the single nucleotide polymorphism panel matched 81% of the fawns to their sires and the microsatellite panel 71%.