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Because of their vulnerability to disease outbreaks, such knowledge is especially needed for endangered and reintroduced species.Ī gene region known for its role in disease susceptibility is the major histocompatibility complex (MHC), a large gene complex that encodes proteins involved in immunity. The ability to fight disease and to adapt to novel pathogens is crucial for population survival but knowledge about the exact mechanisms driving disease resistance in wild species is still limited (Acevedo-Whitehouse & Cunningham, 2006 Buitkamp et al., 1996 Radwan et al., 2010 Spielman et al., 2004). Our results show that genetic variation at the MHC plays an important role in disease resistance and, hence, should be taken into account for successfully managing species conservation. MHC heterozygosity, but not genome-wide heterozygosity, was positively correlated with resistance to infectious keratoconjunctivitis and with body mass. We found that individual MHC heterozygosity (based on six microsatellites) was not correlated with genome-wide neutral heterozygosity. We studied MHC variation in male ibex of Gran Paradiso National Park, the population used as a source for all postbottleneck reintroductions. We investigated genetic variation at the MHC and its correlations with disease resistance and other fitness-related traits in Alpine ibex ( Capra ibex), a wild goat species that underwent a strong bottleneck in the last century and that is known to have extremely low genetic variability, both genome-wide and at the MHC. However, so far, only few studies have shown that low MHC diversity is correlated with increased disease susceptibility in species after severe bottlenecks. Due to the known link between the MHC and immune response, such species are expected to be at particular risk in case of disease outbreaks. Species that went through severe bottlenecks often show very low levels of genetic diversity at the MHC. In vertebrates, the major histocompatibility complex (MHC) plays an important role in determining the immune response. Disease outbreaks can lead to severe population size reductions, which makes endangered and reintroduced species especially vulnerable. Crucial for the long-term survival of wild populations is their ability to fight diseases.