The Betizu feral cattle breed is considered as one of the most endangered and ancient in Europe. It is native to the Basque Country (Euskadi). A small number survives in Bizkaia, Gipuzkoa (Basque Autonomous Community), the Navarre and the Atlantic Pyrenees Department of France (Lapurdi). This paper describes the origin, habitat, zootechnical characteristics, aptitudes and attributes of this breed. At present, conservation projects have been initiated in order to preserve the remaining populations.

The Florina (or Pellagonia) sheep, which have descended from ancient indigenous Greek populations, are on the way to extinction. A small number of animals are found in the region of West Macedonia. The breed belongs to the semi fat-tailed Ruda wool type sheep, is well adapted to harsh mountain conditions and shows resistance to diseases. Recorded farms are kept at the Agricultural Research Station of Koila in Kozani, at the T. E. I. farm of Florina, at the Animal Husbandry Institute of Gianitsa and at the Agricultural Research Station of Komotini. The average commercialised milk production is 96±38.6 kg during a lactation period of 156 days and the average litter size is 1.4±0.52.

Bonpala is a dual purpose sheep breed found in Sikkim, Western Bhutan and Eastern Nepal. A sample survey was conducted in east Sikkim to record characteristics of Bonpala sheep. Information was recorded on morphological characteristics, management practices and body measurements. Bonpala sheep have mixed colours ranging from all white, white and black or all black. Measurements were recorded of body length, height, heart girth, paunch girth, rump width, pin width, face length, face width, ear length, tail length, horn length and horn circumference.

There are approximately 41 million sheep in India, 0.51 million of which are made up by the Chokla population. This breed is generally found around Churu, Jhunjhunu, Sikar and bordering areas of the Bikaner, Jaipur and Nagaur districts of Rajasthan. The animals have a light to medium-sized body, a small head and are reddish brown or dark tan in colour as far as the middle of the neck, with a white body. The skin is pink. The ears are small to medium in length and tubular in shape. The Chokla sheep are hardy and well adapted to arid and semi-arid tropical environments and are suited for the region where migration is a common practice. The Chokla is a comparatively fine-wool producing type among the Indian sheep. The wool produced by Chokla animals is heterogeneous in quality and generally mixed with coarser fleece of other sheep for their utilisation as carpet wool.

The Asturcón Pony was on the verge of disappearing during the decade of the 1970. The creation of A. C. P. R. A (Breeders Association of Asturcón Ponies) and the measures undertaken by this association have made possible the present population of 400 of these animals and future perspectives for them to be bred at large for agrotourism and children's training in horseback riding and other equestrian sports. In spite of the fact that the recovery of the breed is being carried out with few individuals, our results show a high genetic variability. Analysing the allelic frequencies of blood polymorphism, we have obtained an average heterozygosity of 0.3649±0.1070 akin to that of other ponies such as the Dartmoor (0.3396±0.1060), Shetland (0.3158±0.1246 or the Connemara (0.3797±0.1000) and even superior to breeds such as the P. S. I. (0.2857±0.1194) and the Arabian (0.2299±0.0969).

The Criollo horse bred in Uruguay is a direct descendant of the Andalusian horses that were brought to America by the Spanish conquerors. It is not an isolated population. Ever since its coming into existence it has been related to the other populations of the southern countries of South America (Chile, Argentina and Uruguay). It is adapted to the most divergent regions of the continent, evolving through natural selection into a versatile breed, suited in particular for farm work because of its endurance, courage and capacity for recuperation.

At the beginning of this century, its existence was endangered because of the tendency of crossing with European breeds. Around this time, breeder organisations appeared in various countries and with them the standardisation of the Criollo horse as a breed. From this moment on, its growth was well maintained and constant, and today it is also being bred in Germany and Italy.

Dans cette étude, les auteurs font le point sur les principaux résultats obtenus chez le zébu Gobra. La croissance est de 280 g/j dans les conditions d'élevage du C. R. Z de Dahra. Elle peut atteindre cependant 736 g chez des mâles recevant dès la naissance une alimentation équilibrée et 1 080 g dans des unités d'embouche. Les caractéristiques de carcasse sont bonnes et comparables à celles de la plupart des races à viande spécialisées. L'âge à la lère mise-bas (1 365,6±24 j) et l'intervalle entre mise-bas (15,5 mois) sont élevés mais sont susceptibles de diminuer lorsque les conditions d'élevage sont améliorées.

Indigenous chickens (1C) are the commonest type of chickens raised in Malawi, especially in the rural areas. The management system is primarily of the free range type which is characterised by lack of supplementary feeding, minimal housing and little or no animal health services. This in turn results in low bird production in terms of egg and meat production when compared to modern breeds. Cross breeding the 1C with improved breeds such as the Black Australorp is one avenue through which productivity of the indigenous chickens may be improved. The advantages of the indigenous Malawi chicken and issues for their conservation and genetic improvement are discussed.

The switch from keeping laying hens in a floor or free range system into a cage system led to a considerable change in the way that breeding and selection took place. In the past 40–50 years up to the present date, the increase in genetic improvement of the egg laying trait was substantial. However, cage-adapted populations of laying hens seem to have lost some of their abilities to an adequate performance when returned to the old floor\free range systems. The strong concentration of all parts of the poultry production has meant that less than 10 international breeding companies supply most hens for laying purposes in the world and they have very little interest in developing genetic material for the West-European region where there are marked consumer preferences for eggs produced in non-cage systems. A particular Danish line, of White Leghorn origin named “The Skalborg hen” seems to have survived during an era of cage production system and they seems to have a production potential at farm level.

India has a rich diversity of cattle, buffalo, sheep and goat breeds which are not only important to the people of India, but have contributed significantly to livestock programmes in many other tropical and sub-tropical climatic areas of the world. Most important is the fact that our domestic animal genetic resources (AGR) are under threat. This paper highlights the main AGR of India; the threat to biodiversity and the efforts made for conserving and improving indigenous livestock breeds.