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The Mogod pony is native of Northwest Tunisia. Its physical characteristics make him well adapted for mountain use. Since the beginning of the 20th century, its number has greatly decreased. To reverse this trend, the breed will have to be better characterized, in particular from the genetic angle, as this might help search into possible relationships between the pony and horse breeds in the area. Electrophoretic systems of albumin (Al), group specific component (Gc), postalbumin (Xk), esterase (Es), transferrin (Tf) and protease inhibitor (Pi) were studied in 47 Mogod ponies by polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis. Allelic frequencies of the six systems were as follows: AlA : 0,36 ; AlB : 0,64 ; GcF : 1,00 ; XkK : 1,00 ; EsI : 0,64 ; EsG : 0,18 ; EsF : 0,17 ; EsS : 0,01 ; TfD : 0,41 ; TfF2 : 0,31 ; TfH : 0,12 ; PiL : 0,35 ; PiU : 0,22 ; PiR ; PiS : 0,09. The blood protein polymorphism of the Mogod pony was compared with that of thoroughbred Arabian horses, Barb horses and Arab-Barb horses based on bibliographic data.

A seroepidemiological survey was carried out on equine viral arteritis in two regions of Tunisia: Ariana and Kasserine. The authors researched specific antibodies against the arteritis virus by the serum neutralization technique in a sample representative of the horse populations in both areas. The sample concerned 199 horses of which 114 were Thoroughbred Arabian from Ariana area and 85 were Barb from Kasserine area; 72 of them were males and 127 females. Results showed that 51 horses (25.6%) were seropositive. Among them 30 (26.3%) were Arabian horses from Ariana and 21 (24.7%) were Barb horses from Kasserine; the difference was not statistically significant. Twelve males (16.66%) and 39 females (30.7%) were positive; the difference was statistically significant. The results are discussed in relation with those obtained by other authors in Tunisia and neighboring countries.