The American Shire horse breed is currently listed in “critical condition”, the most serious threat category assigned by the American Livestock Breeds Conservancy. Despite concern for the breed's future, however, a thorough genetic analysis of the breed has not been conducted to date. Pedigree data from 85 671 Shire horses born between 1806 and 2011 were used to determine current and historical genetic variability in the Shire horse since the first imported animals arrived from the United Kingdom to the United States. From this larger dataset, a reference population of 1 152 animals representing the most current generation was defined. Effective population size was 330.5, with 832 total founders and high pedigree completeness (98.2 percent) to five generations. Effective number of founders, ancestors and genomes were 104.5, 28.6 and 13.9, respectively. Average inbreeding coefficient was 2.4 percent from complete pedigree data and 1.3 percent when the most recent five generations were considered. Demographic analysis also revealed a population bottleneck in the 1950s. The ten most influential male and female ancestors contributed 48.5 percent and 11.6 percent, respectively, to the reference population, and only three foundation sires are responsible for 95.6 percent of all sire lines in the current generation. Although current assessment of genetic variability indicates a relatively healthy population, the small number of breeding animals, low birth rates and steady rise in inbreeding coefficients mark the American Shire as an at-risk breed for which conservation strategies should be considered.

Populations of the six equine breeds registered by the Indian National Bureau of Animal Genetic Resources have drastically decreased due to indiscriminate breeding and their low utilization. In this study, 15 biometric indices along with typical breed characteristics were recorded for 50 animals of each breed except Bhutia breed (35) for their phenotypic characterization. On the basis of their heights at wither, Kathiawari and Marwari breeds were grouped under “horse”, while Zanskari, Manipuri, Bhutia and Spiti fell under “pony” breeds. Marwari was the tallest and significantly different from other breeds in most of the biometric indices. Spiti was the shortest breed among all the six horse and pony breeds. Sex-wise differences were also observed in some of the biometric indices in different breeds. In Marwari and Kathiawari breeds, both stallions and mares can rotate their ears at an angle of 180° making the ear tips meet in the centre, which is a typical characteristic of the two breeds. This report aims at providing reference data for identification and comparison of different breeds of equines in India with a view to raise awareness among animal geneticists and breeders for production of true to breed animals, conservation and better management of these precious genetic resources.

Senegal owns an important and growing equine livestock. The horse takes a preponderant position in the Senegalese economy. Much appreciated as light draught animal for ploughing and transport and as race horse, MBayar pony, the most important indigenous breed, is docile, sober and tough.

The study was performed on 612 Mbayar horses between October 1994 and January 1996. Moreover 397 animals were examined during veterinarian consultations.

Under rural conditions, the age of first foaling is about 4 years. The fecundity rate is 41.7 %. The birth weight is 30.2 ± 2.2 kg and yearling weight 134.7 ± 33.0 kg. At mature age, the male weight is 245.6 ± 34.0 kg and the female 230.9 ± 29.7 kg. The perinatal mortality rate is 13 %.

Malnutrition, lack of care, overwork, and prophylactic measures and the low knowledge along with low income of the breeders explain the poor productivity of this indigenous breed.

The author gives information on the phenotypic and genetic characteristics, the history and the present state of the endangered breed German Coach Horse