FREQUENCY OF ABO AND Rh BLOOD GROUP ALLELES, PHENOTYPES AND GENOTYPES AMONG STUDENTS OF AMHARA AND OROMO ETHNIC GROUPS IN SHENO SECONDARY AND PREPARATORY SCHOOL, NORTH SHEWA, ETHIOPIA

The Frequencies of Blood types, alleles and genotypes of the ABO and Rh blood group system varies worldwide. Therefore, this study was conducted to get information on the frequencies of alleles, phenotypes and genotypes of ABO and Rh D blood group systems among the students of Amhara and Oromo ethnic groups at Sheno Secondary and Preparatory School, North Shewa Zone, Oromia Region. A total sample of 600 students from two ethnic groups were randomly selected and tested for ABO and Rh blood groups. Blood samples were taken from finger tip and slide method of testing was followed. A drop of each of the antisera, anti-A, anti-B and anti-D was added and mixed with each blood sample and rocked gently for about 60 seconds to observe agglutination. As a result, frequency distributions of the ABO blood groups were recorded for the two ethnic groups. In Amhara ethnic group, the frequency showed O (0.347), A (0.316), B (0.26) and AB (0.077). In Oromo ethnic group, the frequency was O (0.38), A (0.30), B (0.253) and AB (0.067). The more frequent blood type was O in the two ethnic groups. The frequency distribution of Rh-positive blood group in Amhara and Oromo were obtained as (0.923) and (0.953) respectively. The frequency of Rh-negative blood group were (0.077) and (0.047) in Amhara and Oromo ethnic groups respectively. The allelic frequencies of ABO blood groups for Amhara ethnic group were IO, 0.5925, IA, 0.2214 and IB , 0.1861 and IO, 0.6196, IA, 0.2048 and IB, 0.1756 for Oromo ethnic group. An allelic frequency for Rh blood group in overall ethnic groups were 0.7516, ID and 0.2484, Id. The distributions of ABO and Rh blood groups in this study have similar trends with the data from the previous studies in Ethiopia. The sample size used to conduct this study was small and only focused on the two ethnic groups therefore; to study further on all ethnic groups was mainly recommended