The Iceland goat is a rare, isolated breed of Nordic origin dating back to the settlement of Iceland over 1 100 years ago. There is no evidence of goat imports since that time and the only goats which have been exported were a group of six included in a cashmere breeding programme in Scotland in 1986. Historical evidence and records from 1703 onwards, show that goats have been kept in all parts of the country, albeit in small numbers. This goat population was on the verge of extinction a century ago and reached a maximum of nearly 3 000 in 1930. At present there are 370 winterfed goats in 47 flocks located across the country. The goats are mainly kept as pets and are highly inbred. Efforts are being made to market the meat in a few food stores and restaurants, the skins for book binding and the milk as a health product, on a small scale. The cashmere, however, has so far not been harvested for marketing. A state conservation grant, available for individually recorded goats since the late 1960s, has contributed to the maintenance of this endangered breed. Generally, goats are found to be susceptible to the same diseases as sheep in Iceland. However, scrapie has never been diagnosed in goats.

A study was carried out to estimate the population of the Sonadi breed of sheep in the Chittorgarh district of Rajasthan (India), which is part of a major breeding tract of the Sonadi breed. A total of 2 443 sheep from 59 flocks of 18 villages belonging to three different tehsils of Chittorgarh were covered in this survey. The population data on sheep from livestock census (1992) were collected and the figures were extrapolated for the purpose. The population of Sonadi sheep in their natural habitat was estimated to be 603 984 while the total sheep population of the tract was 1 792 050. The estimated number of breeding rams available in the natural habitat were 45 907 out of which only 1 I 802 were of the Sonadi breed. There was a higher proportion of crossbred sheep and an even higher proportion of crossbred rams in the breeding tract as compared to the purebreds. It has been postulated that a proportion of cross bred sheep would further increase which coûld be a threat to the Sonadi breed in a real sense. It has been emphasized that steps for conservation are warranted.

La raza bovina Pajuna es una raza autóctona andaluza que está al borde de la extinción. Su aptitud es mixta carne-trabajo y es posiblemente la raza española más rústica, al ser capaz de adaptarse a los medios marginados, aprovechando los escasos recursos de las sierras andaluzas, que no pueden ser utilizados por otras razas más carniceras.

El cruzamiento indiscriminado con razas especializadas, la mecanización del campo y la pérdida del hábitat de explotación han llevado esta raza a una situación de inminente desaparición, con sólo 300 animales puros, relegados en la mayoría de los casos a meros vientres para el cruce industrial en vacadas mixtas.

En el presente artículo describimos la situación actual y las causas que la han llevado a esta situación, así como las actuaciones de la Asociación de Criadores (GRAPA), creada en el año 2001, dentro de un programa de preservación y recuperación. Estas razones se pueden resumir en la localización de todos los efectivos existentes, el análisis de la estructura demográfica de la población, la actualización de su estándar racial y creación del Libro Genealógico, la caracterización genética, y determinación del nivel de variabilidad intra e interpoblacional a partir del polimorfismo de loci moleculares microsatélites como a través de la variabilidad de la región control del ADN mitocondrial.

En este trabajo se describen las iniciativas de conservación de la oveja de raza Xalda de Asturias. Es una oveja de pequeño tamaño, y de color predominantemente negro que presenta gran similitud morfológica con otras razas ovinas del Arco Atlántico Europeo como la Ouessant o la Morite. En 1992 se funda la asociación de criadores de la raza (ACOXA) y comienza el funcionamiento del Libro Genealógico. Durante la última década la actividad de ACOXA ha estado centrada en la recuperación de individuos aislados fomentando su cría en raza pura. Se ha realizado un análisis de la información genealógica contenida en el Libro Genealógico detectándose el excesivo uso de algunos reproductores que puede provocar una pérdida de variabilidad genética en la población. A partir de estos resultados parece necesario llevar a cabo estrategias de apareamientos que aseguren el mantenimiento del patrimonio genético de la raza.

The rationale for conserving breeds of livestock may be extended to free-living populations which are descended from domestic stock (= feral). An important management difference is that feral animals are not maintained as fixed breeds, but are free to vary and adapt. Many feral populations are pests, and threaten the status of native flora and fauna. This means that they continue to diminish as a result of control operations. Nevertheless, some populations and herds of goats, cattle, horses, sheep and pigs have now been protected. Positive values of commercial and scientific Interest are emerging as animals of feral extraction are studied. Further work is needed to assess the contribution that feral animals can make to the cause of conserving genetic diversity in the world's livestock.

As part of the country-driven strategy for the management of animal genetic resources, FAO invited 188 countries to participate in the preparation of the First Report on the State of the World's Animal Genetic Resources. Utilizing the information provided in the 148 country reports ready for analysis in July 2005, this paper presents a global overview of the state of capacity and utilization of reproductive and molecular biotechnologies in the management of animal genetic resources. Regional descriptions outline the distribution of different biotechnologies, along with a discussion of the species and breed focus of their use, and stakeholder involvement in service delivery. Unsurprisingly, there is a big gap in biotechnology use between developed and developing countries, with artificial insemination being the technology most widely applied in developing countries. More complex technologies such as embryo transfer and molecular tools, are even less common in developing countries. Use of biotechnologies is in general biased towards cattle, and examples of the application of biotechnologies in the management of locally adapted breeds are limited. Most developing countries express the wish to increase the utilization of biotechnologies. However, in many cases clear plans for incorporating technologies into animal genetic resource management are lacking.

En el presente trabajo se detallan los avances logrados en la recuperación del Bovino Criollo Patagónico a partir de una población asilvestrada, ubicada en el Parque Nacional“Los Glaciares”. Además, se informa de los primeros resultados experimentales obtenidos a partir de los animales extraidos de diferentes sectores de dicho Parque y que hoy se encuentran emplazados en establecimientos privados fuera del área protegida.

Analysis of mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) was carried out using 38 Kalahari Red (KR) goats randomly sampled from a flock imported into Nigeria in 2011 by the Federal University of Agriculture, Abeokuta, as an initial step to investigate the genetic structure of the breed, due to limited information on the breed. Apart from estimating genetic diversities, phylogenetic analysis to elucidate maternal lineages, relationship with wild goats as well as Tajima's D and Fu's Fs statistics were computed to test the departure from constant population size under the neutral model. The first hypervariable (HV1) region of mtDNA (481 bp) sequenced from 38 goats represented 11 haplotypes. Polymorphism of HV1 fragment was high, haplotype and nucleotide diversities were 0.869 ± 0.030 and 0.0299 ± 0.0067, respectively. Maximum-likelihood tree constructed with 11 haplotypes and 22 reference haplotypes representing six haplogroups worldwide revealed that five out of 11 haplotypes belong to haplogroup A, whereas six haplotypes belong to B. KR population clustered with Capra aegagrus as its wild ancestor. There was evidence of mitochondrial footprint that reflected past population decline based on positive and significant Fu's Fs estimate (6.283; P < 0.01). The mtDNA data did not however show that genetic variability of the breed has drastically reduced on account of population reduction. The information obtained is strategic to utilization and conservation of the population.

European countries are individually and in collaboration carrying out active work on animal genetic resources (AnGR). The region has a very good starting point for work on AnGR: The breed concept was developed in Europe; current European mainstream breeds are derived from local breeds and, in many species, have further formed the core of the international breeds; there has always been very active research in Europe on farm animal genetics and breeding, including sustainable utilization and management of variation.

Since the 1970s and 1980s many European countries have been paying attention to local breeds and have saved many of them from total extinction. In quite a few countries, the conservation work has been supported by cryopreservation. In the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) coordinated process, Europe has actively contributed to assessing the State of the World's Animal Genetic Resources and will continue to implement the Global Plan of Action. There are now national action plans in most of the European countries.

The European consumption of animal products has changed very little over recent decades. At the same time, production has become very intensive. Among other driving forces, the development of agriculture is steered by the EU policies. The last decade has seen new kind of thinking and measures directed towards an overall consideration of rural development. This has given room for the revitalization of many local breeds. The aim is to have schemes that promote the self-sustainability of local breeds. The EU also has a very ambitious research programme to support these aims while enhancing the overall sustainable production and management of biological resources.

The European Regional Focal Point for Animal Genetic Resources (ERFP) is a common forum for the coordinators of European national programmes on AnGR. There are also many non-governmental organizations (NGOs) working in the animal sector. These NGOs and networks are most relevant to raising awareness about the importance of values of AnGR and in enhancing activities that contribute to conservation and sustainable use of AnGR.

When FAO published a major work in 1974 (Ross Cockrill), reviewing for the first time the then existing information relating to the water buffalo (Bubalus bubalis), Sir John Grenfell E Crawford, the Vice Chancellor of the Australian National University, introduced it by unr' rlining that “among all farming livestock which science had neglected, the domestic buffalo served as an outstanding example of genera failure to recognise and exploit its production potential” Since then a world-wide interest has developed in this species, not only as a purveyor of anima protein for human consumption, but also because of a growing interest in the diversification of products of animal origin and the manufacture of typical regiona products as well as a variety of renewed uses of these animals. Furthermore, the strong image linking the buffalo with nature and the environment's ecological equilibrium, particularly in some of the world's more marginal lands, shows this species as one of the most viable alternatives of intensive cattle husbandry systems which are more and more under accusation in an environment-conscious society.

This study reports the results obtained in the search of chromosomal regions affecting fleece traits in a population of Angora goats in the Argentinean Patagonia. Six hundred thirty-four offspring from 14 parental half-sib families were used. Nine phenotypic fleece traits were recorded at 4 and 11 months of age. A genome examination using 85 informative molecular markers was conducted. A linkage analysis was performed using a regression interval analysis. Our study identified 10 genomic regions affecting the average fibre diameter, coefficient of variation of the average fibre diameter, percentage of fibres with diameters over 30 µm, greasy fleece weight, staple length, average curvature of fibres, percentage of continuous medullated fibres and percentage of kemp fibres located on five goat chromosomes (1, 2, 5, 13 and 19). These results show that the average size of the quantitative trait loci effect was 1.6 phenotypic standard deviations for different traits and families. The aims of quantitative trait loci detection is the potential use of these molecular markers to increase accuracy in predicting the genetic merit of breeding and its implementation in animal breeding schemes through marker-assisted selection.

The zebu population of Somalia includes four main types (Boran, Dawara,, Gasara and Surqo), which cannot be considered as breeds in the same sense as cattle in Europe. Boran, Dawara and Gasara are included in the type known as East African Shorthorned zebu, while the Surqo is regarded as an ancient stable mixture of zebu and Sanga (see Figure 1).

The task of identifying the genetic relationships existing among these types, within a rather heterogeneous population, could best be approached through the study of marker loci like thoseicontrolling the immmogenetic and biochemical polymorphic systems, rather than through the comparison of morphological traits.

Research was continued along these lines to facilitate the genetic characterization of Boran and Dawara types (Di Stasio et al., 1978.and 1980), and the study was extended to include the Surqo type ird-a comparison of the results.

A conservation area in Jiangsu Province, China, has been established for the conservation of the Hu sheep, famous for its early sexual maturity and high reproductive rate as well as its beautifully patterned white-wool coat. Local farmers well experienced in raising these sheep are responsible for pure breeding under the control of-administrative and technical units which have been specially created for this purpose. The conservation area is in the main orange and loquat-growing district of the Province. Manure is used to fertilize the trees-and together with the production of meat from culled sheep and the sale of lambskins, the enterprise is economically viable.

Le Burkina Faso, avec plus de 11 millions de petits ruminants et près de 4 millions de bovins 2 (MAE, 1990) pour un territoire essentiellement sahélien de 274 00 km, est un pays exportateur de bétail. On estime la contribution des produits du bétail à 27% de la valeur de l'ensemble des produits agricoles. L'élevage occupe donc une place de choix dans les activités de la population. Avec le dernier recensement de 1989 (MAE, 1990), on connaît à peu prèsles effectifs du cheptel; cependant, on peut estimer que peu de travaux ont porté sur la description des races locales. Ces travaux sont surtout ceux de Doutressoulle (1947), Dumas et Raymond (1975), et Bourzat (1979).Les données présentées ici proviennent donc essentiellement des sources suscitées; pour certains aspects (taux de croissance) les chiffres proviennent de la cellule statistique du Ministère Délégué aux Ressources Animales (MDCRA, 1991) et de l'Etude prospective du sous-secteur élevage (MAE, 1991).

Selection of meat goat breeds and crossing for meat production provides food a nd is a source of self sufficiency for man. The following four goat breeds are examples of meat production of, Manjiang yellow, Matou, Longling and Hual goat breeds. Recently, it was reported that the quantity of meat output was increased and quality of meat was improved of the local goats in some areas by crossing with Nanjing, Matou and Longling. The Huai breed is a very important breed for producing high quality meat and hides' It is also -noted for its high prolificacy. The natural environments of China are well suited for goat production. Most of its harsher environments can be utilized efficiently only by goats. Especially southern agricultural region and northern agricultural regions develop and use the meat goat breeds as genetic resources for adaptation and production of unique and economically important meat products, and as a complement to cattle or sheep production.

Resources available for animal genetic conservation should be used judiciously. Thus breeds qualifying for conservation should not only be numerically endangered but also possess genetic merit. In determining genetic merit, future changes in market requirements or production systems should be considered. There is an urgent need for an evaluation of the present commercial value of rare breeds in breeding programmes. Support for rare breed preservation in Great Britain is implemented through conservation programmes, evaluation studies and education at different levels.