Assessment of breeds risk status by investigating their geographic distribution

This study is part of the European Regional Focal Point (ERFP) project titled “Development of models assessing the breeds risk status by utilization of population and relevant georeferenced data”. The specific aim of this research is to develop a geographical model to be used to classify the breeds according to their degree of endangerment and to make decisions relevant with the management of animal genetic resources. The geographic distribution of eight local breeds (6 sheep and 2 cattle breeds from United Kingdom, Greece, Slovenia and Italy) was analysed with a GIS approach. We calculated the radius of a buffer including 75% of the population of the investigated breeds; the hypothesis is that 25% of the population of a local breed is the minimum percentage able to guarantee the recovery after an epidemiological outbreak. The results of this study showed that the geographical approach should be used for the definition of the risk status of local breeds.