Introduction The dog was probably the first species domesticated by man and has maintained a special place in human affections ever since. The enormous range of phenotypic diversity exhibited by different dog breeds led Darwin to conclude that they could not all have originated from a single recent ancestral species. In fact, recent molecular data demonstrates that all dog breeds are derived fr...

Through their domestication and subsequent selection, sheep have been adapted to thrive in a diverse range of environments. To characterise the genetic consequence of both domestication and selection, we genotyped 49,034 SNP in 2,819 animals from a diverse collection of 74 sheep breeds. We find the majority of sheep populations contain high SNP diversity and have retained an effective populatio...

and Zerjal T (2015) Farm animal genetic and genomic resources from an agroecological perspective. Agroecology, as a scientific approach, relies on a better knowledge of biodiversity at all levels of organization and function, in order to better manage agricultural production systems, from farm scale to landscape. Ecological concepts such as functional redundancy, complementary use of resources,...

Sufficient genetic variation in livestock populations is necessary both for adaptation to future changes in climate and consumer demand, and for continual genetic improvement of economically important traits. Unfortunately, the current trend is for reduced genetic variation, both within and across breeds. The latter occurs primarily through the loss of small, local breeds. Inferior production i...

Locally adapted breeds of livestock are of considerable interest since they represent potential reservoirs of adaptive fitness traits that may contribute to the future of sustainable productivity in a changing climate. Recent research, involving three hill sheep breeds geographically concentrated in the northern uplands of the UK has revealed the extent of their genetic diversity from one anoth...

Although many research papers have studied diversity and differentiation within livestock species, genetic relationships among neighboring populations remain poorly understood. Here we apply recent methodologies to analyze the polymorphism of 14 microsatellites in 238 unrelated individuals belonging to six sheep breeds from Northern Spain to ascertain their historical relationships and the rela...

Various horse populations in the Americas have an origin in Spain; they are remnants of the first livestock introduced to the continent early in the colonial period (16th and 17th centuries). We evaluated genetic variability within the Venezuelan Criollo horse and its relationship with other horse breeds. We observed high levels of genetic diversity within the Criollo breed. Significant p...

Artificial insemination (AI) and embryo transfer (ET) are not just reproductive techniques, but indispensable tools for genetic improvement. In this sense, they play an effective part in propagating improved breeds. Analysis of the development of insemination of French cattle breeds since 1960 shows how breeders can alter their genetic choices to meet economic needs. AI and ET also have their p...

A study of chromosomal analysis for 200 breeding bulls of different breeds of cattle (Jersey, Holstein Friesian, Sahiwal and Cross-bred) and Nili-Ravi buffalo, maintained at Semen Production Unit, Qadirabad and Livestock Experiment Station, Bhunikey (Pattoki) was carried out. Micromethod was adopted for leukocyte culture and chromosomes were trapped at metaphase stage. The diploid number of chr...

Trypanotolerance is a relative rather than an absolute trait. Thus, trypanotolerant breeds of livestock can be severely affected by trypanosome infections in high challenge situations or when under stress. Similarly, it has been reported that whilst small ruminants, sheep and goats can be kept under low tsetse challenge with little apparent disease, under a high challenge they will suffer a hig...