Book of Abstracts of the 52nd Annual Meeting of EAAP Budapest, 26-29. Aug. , p. 262.

Origin and genetic diversity of North European sheep breeds

E. Eythorsdottir*, I. Olsaker, M. Tapio, I. Miceikiene, L-E. Holm, S. Jeppson and E. Fimland.

*Agricultural Research Institute, Reykjavik, Iceland,


The native Nordic sheep breeds belong to the North European short-tailed group of sheep and are assumed to be closely related to other short-tailed breeds in Northern Europe. They are often prolific and with a lighter body conformation than the heavy meat breeds that have gained in popularity due to market demands for lean and muscular lamb carcasses. In the present project, blood samples and breed information have been collected from 30 sheep breeds, including autochthonous ones, in Norway (9), Sweden (7), Finland (2), West-Russia (1), Lithuania (2), Estonia (1), Latvia (1), Denmark (3), Iceland (2), Faeroe Islands (1) and Greenland (1). The sampling includes all the native sheep populations within the Nordic and Baltic countries. Fifteen of those populations are considered to be of old origin (>300 years) and nine have a population size under 300 breeding animals. Considerable variation is found in morphological traits (colour, horns) both between and within the breeds. DNA from all animals is analysed for microsatellite variation and mitochondrial-DNA will be sequenced in a subset. The results will aid the management of genetic resources in sheep in Northern Europe.