The production of in vitro embryos has sped up the dissemination of superior genetic material. However, the variation among the cattle response to oocyte and embryo production is a challenging factor. This variation is even higher in the Wagyu cattle as the breed has a small effective population size. The identification of an effective marker related to reproductive efficiency would allow the selection of more responsive females to reproductive protocols. The objective of this study was to evaluate the blood levels of anti-Müllerian hormone and associate it with oocyte recovery and blastocyst rate of embryos produced in vitro in Wagyu cows, as well as observe the hormone circulating levels in males. Serum samples from 29 females with seven follicular aspirations and four bulls were used. AMH measurements were performed using the bovine AMH ELISA kit. A positive correlation was identified between oocyte production and blastocyst rate (r = 0.84, P = 9 × 10−9), and AMH levels with oocyte (r = 0.49, P = 0.006) and embryo (r = 0.39, P = 0.03) production. The mean levels of AMH were different between animals with low (11.06 ± 3.01) and high (20.75 ± 4.46) oocyte production (P = 0.01). Males showed high serological levels of AMH (3829 ± 2328 pg/ml) compared with other breeds. It is possible to use the serological measurement of AMH as a method to select Wagyu females with greater capacity for oocyte and embryo production. Further studies correlating AMH serological levels with Sertoli cell function in bulls are needed.

This study aimed at the performance evaluation of a closed flock of Marwari sheep and also to study the effect of accumulated inbreeding on the growth traits using a linear mixed model methodology. The data generated for 39 years (1981 to 2020) on Marwari sheep maintained at ICAR-Central Sheep & Wool Research Institute, Arid Region Campus (CSWRI, ARC), Bikaner, Rajasthan, India were used for analysis on growth traits. The overall least-squares means (LSM) of live weights at birth (BWT), weaning (3MWT), 6 months (6MWT), 9 months (9MWT) and 12 months (12MWT) were observed to be 3.02 ± 0.01, 14.30 ± 0.04, 20.12 ± 0.05, 23.68 ± 0.06 and 26.39 ± 0.07 kg, respectively. Overall LSM for average daily gain from birth to 3 months (ADG1), 3 to 6 months (ADG2) and 6 to 12 months (ADG3) were 125.44 ± 0.40, 67.37 ± 0.40 and 35.83 ± 0.29 g/day, respectively. Kleiber ratio (KR) from birth to 3 months (KR1), 3 to 6 months (KR2), and 6 to 12 months (KR3) were 16.78 ± 0.02, 6.58 ± 0.04 and 3.05 ± 0.02, respectively. Results revealed a 4.36, 25.83, 36.33, 31.50 and 28.99% improvement in the live weights since the inception of the improvement programme. This is also reflected by a significant effect of sire on all the growth traits. The estimate of inbreeding in the flock was 1.55%. Highly inbred animals were 5.13% (>5% Fi). The study revealed the non-significant effect of inbreeding level on all growth traits except for BWT and KR3. For BWT, inbreeding classes had variation; however, a negative effect was not seen. The inbreeding class (>5% Fi) was reduced by 0.05 units for KR3 as against its preceding class. Dam’s age at lambing and weight influenced the birth weight and subsequent weights. The study concluded that the selection programme of Marwari sheep is in the right direction; however, regular monitoring of inbreeding is necessary and factors affecting growth must be monitored to attain better growth rates in the nucleus.

In the UK, numerous pedigree dogs of many breeds experience compromised welfare due to the direct and indirect effects of selective breeding. Many breeds are selected to have physical conformations which, although perceived by some to be desirable, have direct negative effects upon their welfare. Dogs are regularly bred whose heads are too large and pelvises too small to birth naturally or whose faces are so flat that they are unable to breathe or exercise normally. There are also many indirect effects of selective breeding for appearance, including significantly elevated prevalence of specific diseases within particular breeds. Current breeding practices can therefore result in unnecessary suffering due to pain, disability, disease and behavioural problems. In this paper, we summarise and review the current scientific evidence for such suffering, and difficulties associated with assessing the impact of current breeding practices. Limited record-keeping, lack of transparency in the breeding and showing world, and the absence of sufficient research, mean that the full extent of the problem is difficult to assess. Furthermore, the collection of data is currently unsystematic, and although there are specific case studies of individual breeds and particular disorders, relatively few have been conducted in the UK. Individual breeds each suffer from their own array of problems, so each breed's survival and improvement (in terms of health and welfare) is likely to require a different specific course of action. With 209 breeds currently registered in the UK, this makes the situation complex. We collate and present a range of suggestions which may help to improve pedigree dog welfare significantly, and prioritise these based on expert opinion.

The aim of this paper is to discuss the potential consequences of modern dairy cattle breeding for the welfare of dairy cows. The paper focuses on so-called genomic selection, which deploys thousands of genetic markers to estimate breeding values. The discussion should help to structure the thoughts of breeders and other stakeholders on how to best make use of genomic breeding in the future. Intensive breeding has played a major role in securing dramatic increases in milk yield since the Second World War. Until recently, the main focus in dairy cattle breeding was on production traits, but during the past couple of decades more emphasis has been placed on a few rough, but useful, measures of traits relevant to cow welfare, including calving ease score and ‘clinical disease or not’; the aim being to counteract the unfavourable genetic association with production traits. However, unfavourable genetic trends for metabolic, reproductive, claw and leg diseases indicate that these attempts have been insufficient. Today, novel genome-wide sequencing techniques are revolutionising dairy cattle breeding; these enable genetic changes to occur at least twice as rapidly as previously. While these new genomic tools are especially useful for traits relating to animal welfare that are difficult to improve using traditional breeding tools, they may also facilitate breeding schemes with reduced generation intervals carrying a higher risk of unwanted side-effects on animal welfare. In this paper, a number of potential risks are discussed, including detrimental genetic trends for non-measured welfare traits, the increased chance of spreading unfavourable mutations, reduced sharing of information arising from concerns over patents, and an increased monopoly within dairy cattle breeding that may make it less accountable to the concern of private farmers for the welfare of their animals. It is argued that there is a need to mobilise a wide range of stakeholders to monitor developments and maintain pressure on breeding companies so that they are aware of the need to take precautionary measures to avoid negative effects on animal welfare and to invest in breeding for increased animal welfare. Researchers are encouraged to further investigate the long-term effects of various breeding schemes that rely on genomic breeding values.

On the River Ticino in northern Italy, a small number of captive Eurasian otters Lutra lutra, belonging to the European breeding programme for self-sustaining captive populations, were reintroduced in 1997, after the species had been declared locally extinct in the 1980s. We surveyed for otter signs in 2008, 2010, 2016–2017 and 2018, confirming the presence of what is probably a small population. To assess the abundance and viability of the population, we genotyped fresh spraints collected during the last two surveys, using 11 microsatellite markers, and modelled the population trend using Vortex. A minimum of six individuals were identified from 25 faecal samples. The analysis of mitochondrial DNA determined that the reintroduced otters share a transversion that is characteristic of the Asiatic subspecies Lutra lutra barang, confirming the contribution of the Asiatic subspecies to the genetic pool of the captive-bred founder population. Population size was consistent with the release of three pairs of otters and all models implied that the number of founders was too small to ensure the long-term survival of the population. Stochastic factors are therefore likely to threaten the success of this reintroduction.

The analysis of multiple population structures (biodemographic, genetic and socio-cultural) and their inter-relations contribute to a deeper understanding of population structure and population dynamics. Genetically, the population structure corresponds to the deviation of random mating conditioned by a limited number of ancestors, by restricted migration in the social or geographic space, or by preference for certain consanguineous unions. Through the isonymic method, surname frequency and distribution across the population can supply quantitative information on the structure of a human population, as they constitute universal socio-cultural variables. Using documentary sources to undertake the Doctrine of Belén’s (Altos de Arica, Chile) historical demography reconstruction between 1763 and 1820, this study identified an indigenous population with stable patronymics. The availability of complete marriage, baptism and death records, low rates of migration and the significant percentage of individuals registered and constantly present in this population favoured the application of the isonymic method. The aim of this work was to use given names and surnames recorded in these documentary sources to reconstruct the population structure and migration pattern of the Doctrine of Belén between 1750 and 1813 through the isonymic method. The results of the study were consistent with the ethno-historical data of this ethnic space, where social cohesion was, in multiple ways, related to the regulation of daily life in colonial Andean societies.

Conservation of animal genetic resources is considered as one of the main challenges of today's breeding. Every breed of livestock is a valuable element of the world's animal genetic diversity. Over the last few decades, considerable reductions in the number of local breeds and their sizes have been registered. This trend caused the need to implement conservation programmes for endangered goose species. Poland has a number of local goose breeds which are the achievements of many generations of breeders. The objective of this review was to present the current status of the realised conservation programmes for 14 goose breeds in Poland by analysing population and molecular parameters. The conservation status of these populations has been presented including the effective population sizes, hypothetical inbreeding level, trends in performance traits as well as parameters estimated on the basis of genetic markers. In all the cases population sizes were well over 100 individuals, which is the minimum recommended by the FAO for conservation flocks. The effective population size ranged from 179 to 452, affecting a relatively low inbreeding level from 0.1 to 0.74%. The estimated correlations between hypothetical inbreeding rates and reproduction traits were negative. The heterozygosity coefficients varied from 0.27 (Biłgorajska breed) to 0.55 (Garbonosa breed). Generally, the parameters for goose breeds in Poland were compatible with the recommendations of the FAO.

The partition of the total genetic variance into its additive and non-additive components can differ from trait to trait, and between purebred and crossbred populations. A quantification of these genetic variance components will determine the extent to which it would be of interest to account for dominance in genomic evaluations or to establish mate allocation strategies along different populations and traits. This study aims at assessing the contribution of the additive and dominance genomic variances to the phenotype expression of several purebred Piétrain and crossbred (Piétrain × Large White) pig performances. A total of 636 purebred and 720 crossbred male piglets were phenotyped for 22 traits that can be classified into six groups of traits: growth rate and feed efficiency, carcass composition, meat quality, behaviour, boar taint and puberty. Additive and dominance variances estimated in univariate genotypic models, including additive and dominance genotypic effects, and a genomic inbreeding covariate allowed to retrieve the additive and dominance single nucleotide polymorphism variances for purebred and crossbred performances. These estimated variances were used, together with the allelic frequencies of the parental populations, to obtain additive and dominance variances in terms of genetic breeding values and dominance deviations. Estimates of the Piétrain and Large White allelic contributions to the crossbred variance were of about the same magnitude in all the traits. Estimates of additive genetic variances were similar regardless of the inclusion of dominance. Some traits showed relevant amount of dominance genetic variance with respect to phenotypic variance in both populations (i.e. growth rate 8%, feed conversion ratio 9% to 12%, backfat thickness 14% to 12%, purebreds-crossbreds). Other traits showed higher amount in crossbreds (i.e. ham cut 8% to 13%, loin 7% to 16%, pH semimembranosus 13% to 18%, pH longissimus dorsi 9% to 14%, androstenone 5% to 13% and estradiol 6% to 11%, purebreds-crossbreds). It was not encountered a clear common pattern of dominance expression between groups of analysed traits and between populations. These estimates give initial hints regarding which traits could benefit from accounting for dominance for example to improve genomic estimated breeding value accuracy in genetic evaluations or to boost the total genetic value of progeny by means of assortative mating.

Genomic regions under high selective pressure present specific runs of homozygosity (ROH), which provide valuable information on the genetic mechanisms underlying the adaptation to environment imposed challenges. In broiler chickens, the adaptation to conventional production systems in tropical environments lead the animals with favorable genotypes to be naturally selected, increasing the frequency of these alleles in the next generations. In this study, ~1400 chickens from a paternal broiler line were genotyped with the 600 K Affymetrix® Axiom® high-density (HD) genotyping array for estimation of linkage disequilibrium (LD), effective population size (Ne), inbreeding and ROH. The average LD between adjacent single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in all autosomes was 0.37, and the LD decay was higher in microchromosomes followed by intermediate and macrochromosomes. The Ne of the ancestral population was high and declined over time maintaining a sufficient number of animals to keep the inbreeding coefficient of this population at low levels. The ROH analysis revealed genomic regions that harbor genes associated with homeostasis maintenance and immune system mechanisms, which may have been selected in response to heat stress. Our results give a comprehensive insight into the relationship between shared ROH regions and putative regions related to survival and production traits in a paternal broiler line selected for over 20 years. These findings contribute to the understanding of the effects of environmental and artificial selection in shaping the distribution of functional variants in the chicken genome.

Four flower-color phenotypes were observed in a population of musk thistle (Carduus thoermeri Weinm.). This plant has been commonly referred to as C. nutans L. The four phenotypes were: purple corolla and purple pollen, pink corolla and white pollen, white corolla and purple pollen, and white corolla and white pollen. In four generations, 177 self-pollinated individuals of these four phenotypes produced 2123 progeny plants that were classified. Results support the hypothesis that three independent gene pairs were involved in determining the four flower phenotypes. The gene pairs have been designated P/p, W/w, and Pi/pi. It was postulated that all three dominant alleles, P, W, and Pi, must be present to produce both purple corollas and purple pollen. The p allele prevents color development in both corollas and pollen; the w allele eliminates color in corollas but does not affect pollen color; and the pi allele dilutes corolla color from purple to pink and eliminates pollen color. Height measurements of progenies of self-pollinated plants indicated that decreased plant height was associated with inbreeding. On the basis of the evidence presented, the musk thistle plants used in these experiments appear to belong to a single species.

Stemming from The Worldwide Donkey Breeds Project, an initiative aiming at connecting international researchers and entities working with the donkey species, molecularly tested pedigree analyses were carried out to study the genetic diversity, structure and historical evolution of the Andalusian donkey breed since the 1980s to infer a model to study the situation of international endangered donkey breeds under the remarkably frequent unknown genetical background status behind them. Demographic and genetic variability parameters were evaluated using ENDOG (v4.8). Pedigree completeness and generation length were quantified for the four gametic pathways. Despite mean inbreeding was low, highly inbred animals were present in the pedigree. Average coancestry, relatedness, and non-random mating degree trends were computed. The effective population size based on individual inbreeding rate was about half when based on individual coancestry rate. Nei’s distances and equivalent subpopulations number indicated differentiated farms in a highly structured population. Although genetic diversity loss since the founder generations could be considered small, intraherd breeding policies and the excessive contribution of few ancestors to the gene pool could lead to narrower pedigree bottlenecks. Long average generation intervals could be considered when reducing inbreeding. Wright’s fixation statistics indicated slight inbreeding between farms. Pedigree shallowness suggested applying new breeding strategies to reliably estimate descriptive parameters and control the negative effects of inbreeding, which could indeed, mean the key to preserve such valuable animal resources avoiding the extinction they potentially head towards, making the present model become an international referent when assessing endangered donkey populations.

The aim of this study was to evaluate genetic variability in the Turkish Arab horse population using pedigree information. This study is the first detailed pedigree analysis of the breed in Turkey. Pedigree data were collected from the National Studbook. The pedigree data for 23 668 horses, born between 1904 and 2014, were used in the analysis. From this data set, a reference population (RP) of 14 838 animals symbolising the last generation was defined. Demographic parameters, the inbreeding level (F), the average relatedness (AR), the effective population size (Ne), the effective number of founders (fe), the effective number of ancestors (fa) and the number of founder genome equivalents (fg) were calculated for the population. The average generation interval for the RP was 12.2±4.6 years, whereas the calculated pedigree completeness levels were 98.2%, 96.6% and 95.0% for the first, second and third known generations. The mean equivalent generations (t), the average complete generations and the mean maximum generations for the RP were 7.8, 5.4 and 12.2, respectively, whereas the mean F and AR were 4.6% and 9.5% for the RP. The rate of inbred animals was 94.2% for the RP, whereas the number of founders, the number of ancestors and the fe, fa and fg were 342, 223, 40, 22 and 9.6 for the RP. The large differences observed between fe, and the number of founders demonstrates that genetic diversity decreased between the founder and the RP. Contribution of the 14 most influential founder to the RP was 50.0%, whereas just eight ancestral horses can account for 50% of the genetic variability. Ne estimated via an individual increase in inbreeding per generation ( $$ \hskip3pt{\bar{\hskip-2ptN}_{{\rm e}} } $$ ), and paired increase in coancestry $$\left(\! \hskip3pt{\bar{\hskip-2ptN}_{{ eC}} } \right)$$ , were 74.4±3.9 and 73.5±0.58, respectively. The inbreeding increases with the pedigree knowledge. In addition, the decrease in inbreeding in last years is more noticeable.

Pedigree analysis using genealogical information of 18 315 animals born between 1949 and 2008 was done to quantify genetic variability of the Sahiwal population in Kenya. Generation intervals for sire pathways were longer than dam pathways and increased over year periods, from about 4–16 years. The later was due to use of old bulls for breeding in the last 2 year groups and cessation of progeny testing in the year 2000. Average inbreeding level in last year period studied was 1.2 percent. Genetic variability of the population as assessed based on gene origin statistics decreased over the years. The ratio of effective number of founders to founders of 0.06 showed unequal contribution of founders to the reference population. However, since the founding population, ancestors contributed equally as shown by the ratio of f e/f a of 0.94, which could also be due to lack of effective selection in this population. The ratio of f g/f a of 0.63 indicated genetic loss of genetic variability occurred through genetic drift in the Kenyan Sahiwal population. The small number of ancestors (16) that accounted for 50 percent of the total variation in the reference population suggested overuse of a small number of some animals as parents over generations. The smaller ratio of f g/f e compared with f a/f e also confirms loss of genetic variability in the population by genetic drift than bottlenecks. Therefore the breeding strategy for the Sahiwal population in Kenya should incorporate tools that balance rate of genetic gain and the future rate of inbreeding.

We tested the hypothesis that mating strategies with genomic information realise lower rates of inbreeding (∆F) than with pedigree information without compromising rates of genetic gain (∆G). We used stochastic simulation to compare ∆F and ∆G realised by two mating strategies with pedigree and genomic information in five breeding schemes. The two mating strategies were minimum-coancestry mating (MC) and minimising the covariance between ancestral genetic contributions (MCAC). We also simulated random mating (RAND) as a reference point. Generations were discrete. Animals were truncation-selected for a single trait that was controlled by 2000 quantitative trait loci, and the trait was observed for all selection candidates before selection. The criterion for selection was genomic-breeding values predicted by a ridge-regression model. Our results showed that MC and MCAC with genomic information realised 6% to 22% less ∆F than MC and MCAC with pedigree information without compromising ∆G across breeding schemes. MC and MCAC realised similar ∆F and ∆G. In turn, MC and MCAC with genomic information realised 28% to 44% less ∆F and up to 14% higher ∆G than RAND. These results indicated that MC and MCAC with genomic information are more effective than with pedigree information in controlling rates of inbreeding. This implies that genomic information should be applied to more than just prediction of breeding values in breeding schemes with truncation selection.

The study was carried out in selected districts in the Northwestern Amhara, from October 2012 to May 2013. The objective of the study were to undertake on-farm and on-station phenotypic characterization of Fogera Cattle in comparison with two different local cattle population, to characterize the population structure and to identifying trait preferences, breeding management and to recommend breeding strategy for Fogera cattle. Both purposive and random samplings were employed. Data were gathered through semi-structured questionnaire, focus group discussions, field observations, census data, direct count and body measurements. About 126 smallholder farmers were interviewed. About 21 quantitative and 17 qualitative phenotypic data types were also generated from 332 cattle. The Effective population size (Ne) and rate of inbreeding (ΔF) were calculated from the counted population structure data. Both GLM procedures of SAS and descriptive statistics of SPSS software's were employed for data analyses. The results indicated that Fogera cattle were kept mostly for milk (97.62 percent). The main threats identified for the survival of Fogera cattle were scarcity of feed resources and interbreeding with other indigenous cattle, which are less demanding in terms of feed. Fogera cattle population has specific morphological appearance. Generally about 65.2 percent of male pure-Fogera cattle population are having large hump and large dewlap (93.5 percent) with cervico-thoracic (82.6 percent) hump position and long tail (97.8 percent), respectively. The coat pattern of male pure-Fogera cattle is dominated by the spotted coat pattern (82.6 percent) with 43.5 percent white black and 39.1 percent black white coat colour. Female Fogera cattle have medium (94.4 percent) hump size at cervico-thoracic positions (73.2 percent), large dewlap (62.7 percent) and long tail which is well below the hock (91.5 percent). The coat pattern of female pure-Fogera cattle is dominated by white spotted (80.3 percent) with 43.0 percent white black and 33.1 percent black white coat colour Most of the quantitative traits were highly significantly (P ≤ 0.001) affected by breed type. Except horn length and horn space all of quantitative traits for both sexes of pure-Fogera cattle from on-station were significantly (P ≤ 0.05) larger than those of the on-farm. The average linear body measurement taken on a total of 46 male pure-Fogera cattle populations were 42.68 ± 0.56 cm (mouth circumference), 16.35 ± 0.72 cm (horn length), 37.04 ± 1.16 cm (dewlap width) and 129.17 ± 1.33 cm (height at wither). The average linear body measurements for female pure-Fogera cattle were 38.23 ± 0.18 cm (mouth circumference), 13.81 ± 0.37 cm (horn length), 27.20 ± 0.42 cm (dewlap width) and 123.68 ± 0.52 cm (height at wither). The population structure were dominated by Pure-Fogera constituting 37.02 percent, Interbred with Fogera (33.71 percent) and non-Fogera (29.23 percent). The effective population size of pure-Fogera cattle was 4295, with 9016 total population. The average inbreeding level for the population was 0.012 percent. Inbreeding is at a low level and the effective population size is large. The calculated parameters indicate satisfactory genetic diversity in Fogera cattle. Milk yield, colour, power, body size and growth rate of Fogera were the most dominant traits perceived to be good by the respondents. The special qualification of this breed is to live at high amount of flooding areas with adapting other very challenging environment. Pure breeding of pure-Fogera, interbred with Fogera and non-Fogera type of breeds was used for breeding practice with natural mating. The Andassa Research Center established in 1964 as Fogera cattle population improving centre, but according to different source, population viability and population structure indicated that the population are not viable and highly admixture with other indigenous cattle breeds. According to this in order to improve the population status of Fogera cattle we recommended control with open-nucleus breeding strategy. So in order to minimize the risk status of this breed and conserve for the future generation any responsible agent should be given priority.

Individual increase in inbreeding coefficients (ΔFi) has been recommended as an alternate measure of inbreeding. It can account for the differences in pedigree knowledge of individual animals and avoids overestimation due to increased number of known generations. The effect of inbreeding (F) and equivalent inbreeding (EF) calculated from ΔFi, on growth traits were studied in Nilagiri and Sandyno flocks of sheep. The study was based on data maintained at the Sheep Breeding Research Station, Sandynallah. The pedigree information and equivalent number of generations were less in Sandyno compared with Nilagiri sheep. The average F and EF for the Nilagiri population were 2.17 and 2.44, respectively and the corresponding values for Sandyno sheep were 0.83 and 0.84, respectively. The trend of inbreeding over years in both the populations indicated that EF was higher during earlier generations when pedigree information was shallow. Among the significant effects of inbreeding, the depression in growth per 1 percent increase in inbreeding ranged from 0.04 kg in weaning weight to 0.10 kg in yearling weight. In general, more traits were affected by inbreeding in Nilagiri sheep, in which greater regression of growth traits was noticed with F compared with EF. Higher values of EF than F in earlier generations in both the populations indicate that EF avoided the potential overestimation of inbreeding coefficient during recent generations. In the Sandyno population, the magnitude of depression noticed among growth traits with significant effects of inbreeding was higher. The differences in response to F and EF noticed in the two populations and possible causes for the trait wise differences in response to F and EF are appropriately discussed.

Knowledge of processes responsible for seed dormancy can improve our understanding of the evolutionary dynamics of reproductive systems. We examined the influence of the breeding system on primary seed dormancy in Hypericum elodes, an Atlantic–European softwater pools specialist plant that exhibits a mixed mating strategy (the ability to both self- and cross-pollinate) to set seeds. Seeds were obtained through hand pollination treatments performed in a natural population during three consecutive years. Primary dormancy of seeds recovered from each pollination treatment was measured by analysing the seed germination response at dispersal and after various periods of cold stratification. While all collected seeds exhibited physiological dormancy, the degree of primary dormancy was associated with the pollination treatments. Weak and rapid loss of primary dormancy characterized seeds recovered from self-pollinated flowers, while stronger dormancy was found in seeds obtained from cross-pollination. The association between pollination treatments and primary dormancy indicated that the mating system should be considered as a source of variation for dormancy degree, proportional to self- and cross-pollinations (selfing rate) within populations of this species. These results suggest that by shedding seeds with various degrees of dormancy, plants may distribute their offspring across time by means of polymorphism in germination response. We conclude that seed germination alone is not an appropriate fitness measure for inbreeding depression estimates, unless dormancy is removed.

A genealogical and a viability analysis was carried out on the 1559 available registers for the Conservation Nucleus of Brazilian Bergamasca sheep of the University of Brasilia farm in Brazil using the ENDOG and the Vortex programs. To run the ENDOG it was used the registered data and for the Vortex it was used information obtained by a questionnaire answered by the curators of the herds. Of the animals registered, 767 had known parents, with significantly more dams known at each generation. The number of pedigrees known has increased over the generations, with higher registration of parents of sires than dams. The Computed Mean Inbreeding calculated by ENDOG was 0.29 percent and mean average relatedness was 1.52 percent. Mean Generation interval was 3.71 years with this values being lower for sires than dams. The population probability of extinction, calculated by Vortex was 17 percent and the average time to extinction was 59 years. Forty-two additional scenarios were created to determine which factors most threaten these populations which were frequency of catastrophes, lack of animal entrance and adult and lamb mortalities, especially adult female mortality. These results indicate that future breeding plans should include exchange of sires between farms to maintain low inbreeding levels and increase genetic variability and upgrade the management to control the mortality rates of animals.

A genealogical analysis of Crioula horses registered by the Brazilian Association of Crioula Horse Breeders was performed. The state of Rio Grande do Sul is the largest producer of animals with 89.85 percent of registered animals, of which 45.29 percent were males and 54.71 percent females. The inbreeding coefficient was calculated at 0.88 percent and the average relatedness was 0.65 percent in the total population (animals born in Brazil and imported). Inbreeding increased over the generations. An increase was seen in the average genetic conservation index in animals born after the year 1927 (0) until 2010 (8.67 percent). The average generation interval was 10.3 years and the average age of parents when offspring born were 10.5 years, falling in recent years. The effective population size of founders was 95.19 animals, the number of ancestors contributing to this population was 5086 where 56 ancestors explained 50 percent of the genetic diversity of the breed. Inbreeding is under control in the Crioula horse. The increase in registrations reflects the increased interest from farmers in this breed.