The objective of this study was the morphological characterization of the sheep population in the southwest of Tunisia. A joint analysis of quantitative and qualitative characters was carried out on 987 animals of three breeds: two local breeds (Barbarine (BAR) and Queue Fine de l'Ouest (QFG and QFT)) and an exotic breed introduced from Morocco, the D'man (DMN) breed.

Results on quantitative characters (height at withers (HG), body length (LC), thorax perimeter (PT), body weight of males (P♂) and body weight of females (P♀)) showed a significant superiority of the Queue Fine de l'Ouest breed compared to the other two breeds. On the other hand, results on qualitative characters (fleece color, horn and wattles) showed white to be the dominant color of the fleece in the Barbarine and Queue Fine breeds, while for the D'man breed there were various colors. Generally, females of the three breeds were polled while males were horned for the Queue Fine and polled for the Barbarine and D'man breeds. The Barbarine distinguishes itself from the other breeds by the total absence of wattles which are predominantly missing in the other two breeds.

Genetic distances estimated on the basis of quantitative characters showed that distances found between the Barbarine-D'man and Fine Tail of Ouest-D'man breeds were higher than those found between the Barbarine-Queue Fine breeds.

The Ripollesa sheep breed is an important Spanish local breed mainly located in the Mediterranean mountains and cultivated plains of Catalonia, exploited under semi-extensive production systems and currently intended for meat production. The morphological characterization of the Ripollesa breed was carried out from the study of eight flocks representative of different subpopulations. A total of 224 Ripollesa ewes and 17 rams were recorded for their live weight and 12 morphological measures, which were used for calculating 12 zootechnical indexes. Differences (P < 0.05) between flocks and sexes were revealed for several measures. A principal component analysis was performed on the morphological measures and revealed two main principal components accounting for 47.6 and 12.3 percent of the inertia, being related to the frame (body size and live weight) and to withers height and ear length, respectively. The cluster analysis allowed differentiating among four subpopulations with relevant implications to be taken into account for the breed conservation programme. The observed differences could be attributable to geographic location, selective history, flock management and genetics. The estimated zootechnical indexes classified the Ripollesa sheep breed as a medium-sized and long-shaped body frame, with a marked orientation to meat production and with signs of adaptation to the environment.

Phenotypic characterization of indigenous chicken resources is a prerequisite for their rational utilization. Data were collected from 748 randomly selected households (HHs) using structured questionnaires. Visual appraisal was conducted to study morphological traits of indigenous chicken populations. Quantitative data were collected on body weight and shank length from both sexes. The results indicated that 55.0 percent of chicken populations were single combed followed by rose (28.5 percent) and pea (15.2 percent) combs. Yellow was the major shank colour (52.5 percent), followed by white (29.1 percent) and black (14.7 percent). About 46.4, 34.2 and 19.4 percent of chicken populations exhibited red, white and yellow earlobes, respectively. The predominant plumage colour was Kei (36.6 percent) followed by Tikur (20.7 percent), Gebsima (15.3 percent), Netch (12.3 percent), Kokima (8.4 percent), Wosera (3.7 percent), Zigrima (1.7 percent) and Zagolima (1.3 percent). The highest adult body weight was found in Naked-neck chickens (1.7 kg), followed by Kei (1.5 kg), Gebsima (1.45 kg) and Wosera (1.46 kg). The Naked-neck and Wosera males had the longest shank of 115 and 113 mm, respectively. Kei male chickens had large body weight shank length ratio compared with other indigenous chickens. The present study suggests that indigenous chicken populations might possess useful genetic potentials for improved productivity under scavenging feed resource-based production systems.

To better understand natural genetic variation in indigenous livestock resources, as well as formulate conservation policies, better genetic characterization is required to balance the competing needs of genetic improvement and conservation of native germplasm, primarily in rural agricultural systems in developing countries. Genetic diversity of goats in southern Nigeria was assessed using 295 indigenous goats with ten microsatellite DNA markers. The breeds are West African Dwarf (WAD), Red Sokoto (RS) and Sahel (SA) sampled from farms, market places and rural homesteads. The mean expected heterozygosity (HE) ranged from 0.608 to 0.784 in two sub-populations of WAD goats. Deviations from Hardy–Weinberg equilibrium (HWE) were statistically significant (p < 0.05) indicating that these populations are under various forces stemming from the management choices of rural dwellers. Polymorphic information content of these markers averaged 0.803 and mean GST index was 0.176. The measure of genetic distance between pairs of breeds indicated that the lowest distance was between WAD and RS (0.268) and the highest distance was between WAD and SA (0.662) goats, respectively. The estimated dendogram clustered these Nigerian goats into nine sub-populations and two major genetic groups. The study suggests that indigenous goat populations in southern Nigeria may be collapsed from three breeds into two distinct genetic groups, possibly due to extensive cross-breeding and gene flow between them, which are symptomatic of uncontrolled crossing across much of the country.

Pedigrees of a reference population of 1 659 North American Norwegian Fjord horses were traced to founders and analysed for coefficients of inbreeding and genetic variability. Effective population size was 207.8 and there were 641 total founders. Pedigree completeness was close to 100 percent for 6 generations, with 9.8 average complete generation equivalents. The average inbreeding coefficient was 3.2 percent for the entire pedigree and 1.6 percent for pedigrees traced back five generations. Average inbreeding coefficients by year of birth increased until 1983, before decreasing and then stabilizing through 2009. Effective number of founders, ancestors and genomes were 96, 30.0 and 12.7, respectively. Low effective number of founders and ancestors indicate that genetic diversity has been lost in the development of the breed in North America. However, registry-enforced breeding strategies have contributed to lower inbreeding coefficients in the current generation.

The objective of this paper was to estimate the farmers' preferences based on the non-market traits in selection, breeding and conservation of indigenous chicken. The study was carried out in four selected counties of Kenya. Data were collected using structured questionnaires with the use of multi-attribute elicitation techniques applied to 450 rural households. Conjoint analysis through an ordered probit model was used to analyse the data. The study identified traits preferred by the farmers based on their current low-input production circumstances. Using these traits, indigenous chicken can be selected for higher productivity and performance while retaining their diversity and adaptability. In general, the determination of the importance of various attributes elucidates to the stakeholders some valuable aspects that would assist them in overcoming some of the major constraints of indigenous chicken production in rural areas and at the same time provides vital information for selection, conservation and development of breeding programmes.

Studies on Sahiwal cattle genetic resources in the tropics have mainly concentrated on evaluating their performance levels, with only a few published reports describing the breed characteristics. The aim of this study was to critically examine the existing breeding and conservation programmes for Sahiwal cattle in the tropics, focusing on Pakistan, India and Kenya as the core regions of development. The study was based on review of both published and unpublished literature highlighting shortcomings and strengths in the existing strategies, and opportunities for improvement and conservation. The Sahiwal breed is utilized for dairy and beef production under smallholder dairy, pastoral extensive and ranching production systems, both as pure-breds or cross-breds. The necessary components to strengthen the breeding programmes such as performance recording, genetic evaluation and artificial insemination (AI) facilities exist to differing degrees. Breeding and conservation efforts benefit from the technical and financial support from government research institutions which also provide incentives to enhance participation in the programmes. However, breeding goals are rather informal and only defined in terms of high-production levels with functional traits largely ignored. There is need for participatory identification of breeding and production goals, and structured cooperation of the small herds, so as to accommodate the specific contributions of the breed in future breeding and conservation programmes.

This paper reviews the current situation of conservation activities in Europe. It includes an overview of the current situation of the relevant policy measures and related activities, the involvement of the public and private sector, and funding and estimated benefits of these actions. The review is based on the results of a survey conducted within the European National Coordinators for the management of animal genetic resources (AnGR), initiated by the GLOBALDIV project. The objective of this review is to bring to the attention of policy-makers and European Commission the conclusions and recommendations as a contribution to the formulation of future policies. The increasing awareness to the importance of AnGR biodiversity is reflected in the responses to this survey, particularly in the issues related to the cryoconservation activities in the different countries and the discussion on the expected benefits of the implementation of conservation programmes. The concept of biodiversity as a public good has already been accepted by European public and by policy-makers. The additional scope of protection of farm animal biodiversity, as an investment in the future food security, needs to be reflected in the future policies.

Conservation of animal genetic resources (AGR) in Scandinavia was started in the 1970s and organized in the 1980s. The work is coordinated by a working party financed by the Nordic Council of Ministers. Each country conserves its own AGR, but many tasks can be done jointly. Of these tasks, the development and maintenance of a Nordic data bank for AGR is an important part. Each country has mapped out its situation and prepared plans for conserving endangered native breeds and genetic variation in some major breeds for unpredictable future needs. Live animals from several breeds have been conserved in agricultural schools, prison farms and private herds, but these have been supplemented by stores of frozen semen and embryos. Developments in conservation methods are followed up and problems of conservation pointed out. Many of these are caused by the fact that animals grow, age, die and have to be mated regularly with unrelated animals, and that records have to be made of identities, mates, dates and traits. Many precautionary measures are necessary. Many-sided frozen semen and embryo stores are important besides live animal herds or flocks. There are problems in getting each female inseminated with an appropriate male, and in getting people working on different motives to collaborate.

The loss of biodiversity has become a major environmental issue during the course of the twentieth century. Numerous indigenous farm animal breeds have been replaced by commercial breeds in agricultural production processes in industrialized countries, sometimes resulting in complete breed loss and at other times placing the breed in an endangered status. Loss of breeds occurs mainly due to the striving for more intensive production, which often means that indigenous farm animal breeds are kept in conventional production only in marginal agricultural areas. One such endangered breed is the Yakutian Cattle, an indigenous Siberian cattle breed that is kept in the Russian Far East. The cattle have a low output but valuable characteristics that confer adaptation to the northern environment. This article addresses the socio-cultural and political context of conservation of the cattle at different levels in society. The conservation of animal genetic resources is embedded in the international agenda, and the Russian Federation has ratified conventions to protect them. The conservation is de facto organized at the republic level. The local communities carry out the conservation in practice by keeping and maintaining the cattle, although the conservation was initiated by the scientific community. We suggest that the conservation of Yakutian Cattle is based on national and local interests, rather than on global conventions on biological or cultural diversity. Furthermore, the reasons for conservation are different at different levels, which constitute both an advantage and a challenge for the future.