The status of the nordic native breeds

Left: Puffin dog l Middle: Finnish Landrace chicken I Right: Danish Landrace goat

The Domestic Animal Diversity Information System (DAD-IS), hosted by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) was investigated to determine the current status of the Nordic breeds. The data was extracted from DAD-IS 04.06.2024. We extracted population data from 2004 to 2024 and the current risk status for local breeds in Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Finland, Iceland and the Faroe Islands. For breeds that were not available or that lacked updated information in DAD-IS, we collected external information about their population size where it was available from sources such as breeding organisations, national reports, online databases and scientific articles.

Information concerning cryoconservation for each of the countries was extracted from DAD-IS 19.06.2024. The extracted data included reported numbers from the 2007 to 2024 at the latest. The total number of samples were interpreted to be the last reported number into DAD-IS.

Available reports for both inbreeding parameters and effective population sizes were used as the primary source of information. For breeds where no updated reports were available, a thorough investigation of the web using both breed-wise (1) and species-wise (2) searches in both English and Nordic languages was conducted: 

Most of the breeds (82%) had at least one entry of population size in DAD-IS, and information regarding the current population was collected for another 11% of the breeds using additional sources (Figure 1). 77% of the breeds had updated population data from the last three years (2021 or newer), while 16% had either no data or data older than 10 years (Figure 2). When looking at the distribution of data based on species (Figure 3), all the sheep, cattle, horse and goat breeds are represented in DAD-IS, while 52% of the dog breeds have recorded information. Contrastingly, all the dog breeds have available population data online in other sources. For instance, the number of puppies registered each year are reported by either breed associations or the national kennel clubs. Cats are not considered as production animals by the FAO, and do not have any entries into DAD-IS. For the poultry, pigeon and rabbit breeds, 80-90% of the breeds are represented in DAD-IS, however, the information from these species is often scattered or not recently updated (Supplementary 1, Table A-G). Some of the transboundary breeds might have been represented in DAD-IS in one country and not the other it belongs to and so the data had to be complemented using external sources.

Figure 1: The percentages of breeds with population data divided according to source material (i.e., DAD-IS, external source, both, no data).

‘Both’ indicates breeds where there are not sufficient data in DAD-IS and it has been complemented with information from an external source and ‘no data’ indicates that no information was available through either DAD-IS or other sources.

There are 167 native breeds in the Nordic region. The majority of them are native to Sweden (67) followed by Norway (43), Denmark (25), Finland (16), Iceland (7) and the Faroe Islands (4), while five breeds/subspecies are considered transboundary in the Nordic region. Sheep, dogs, cattle and chickens have the largest proportions of breeds (34, 29, 28 and 21 breeds, respectively) (Table 2, Figures 4 and 5).

* In this table, transboundary breeds are counted only once across all countries (and not within the countries) to avoid double counting. For number of breeds per country including transboundary breeds, see section 4.4. The exception is VikingRed as it is based upon three different native breeds (i.e., the Swedish Red, Danish Red and Finnish Ayrshire; see section 4.4).

Figure 4: The distribution of breeds within each species in the Nordics. Total number of breeds: 167.

Figure 5: The distribution of breeds within the Nordic countries. Total number of breeds: 167.

FAO uses the number of breeding females and males as the criteria for deriving the risk status of a breed (Figure 6). The risk statuses of the breeds for this report (except for the brown bee) were based on DAD-IS, where the definition of number of females differs according to country (i.e., some use the total number of females, while others use number of females of reproductive age, or the number of females that had offspring). While there is a large variety of native breeds within the Nordic region, most of them are at risk. According to the DAD-IS only 23 breeds can be categorized as “not at risk” of extinction. The remaining 144 breeds are either categorized as “vulnerable”, “endangered”, "critically endangered” or “undetermined” (9, 84, 35 and 16, respectively; Figure 7A).

Figure 7: Risk status and developmental trends of the Nordic native breeds.
The figure illustrates the risk status (A) and the developmental trends (B) of all the 167 Nordic native breeds. Maintained indicates that the breeds are part of a conservation programme.

The population developmental trends of the different breeds are variable between and within species and different countries. Based on the data available from DAD-IS the population trends of the native breeds were determined as “increasing”, “decreasing”, “stable”, and “undetermined” (insufficient information). 50% of the breeds did not have information on trend registered in DAD-IS (Figure 7B). While 11% and 24% of the breeds are either increasing or stable, 15% of the breeds have a declining population trend. 

Denmark houses 27 breeds, including the transboundary breeds Nordic Brown bee, Danish-Swedish Farmdog and Danish Red dairy cattle with their contribution to the VikingRed cattle breeding program (Table 2). The majority of the breeds are either endangered or critically endangered by extinction, highlighting the necessity for continued conservation of the Danish native breeds (Figure 8). Only the Danish population of VikingRed is considered not at risk in Denmark (Figure 8).

Figure 8: Number of breeds per species and their risk status for Denmark.
Total number of Danish breeds, including transboundary breeds: 27.

The livestock in Greenland are mainly based on mixes of imported breeds.  For example, the Greenlandic sheep is considered a descendant of the Icelandic sheep (Bojesen and Olsen, 2019). The exception is the Greenland Dog that is considered its own breed. Although not part of the Danish conservation program, the Greenland Dog is included in the statistics for Denmark, as the breed is under the Danish Kennel club's responsibility according to the Nordic Kennel Union. The Greenland dog does not have data registered in DAD-IS, however, Statbank Greenland

https://bank.stat.gl/pxweb/en/Greenland/

has statistics on the total number of sled dogs in Greenland, which is the number used in this report. Although this number is well above what is considered “not at risk” (13 123 sled dogs in 2022), we cannot validate how many of these sled dogs belong to the Greenland Dog breed, and thus the breed has been categorised with an “undetermined” risk status. The numbers are also declining each year which indicates that there could be a risk to the breed in the future (Supplementary 2, Table 1). 

The Faroe Islands house four native breeds. Like Denmark, only one of the breeds (Faroese sheep) is not at risk of extinction. Further, one breed (the Faroese horse) is critically endangered, and the remaining two (the Faroese duck and Faroese goose) breeds have an undetermined status (Figure 9). However, it is likely that the status of the poultry breeds is critical as well, and the fact that they do not have records of the populations is a risk factor in itself. The Faroese horse is vulnerable to both loss of genetic variation and external pressures, as its live population consists only of 82 individuals. Measures are currently being taken to conserve this breed: an action plan has been published, semen for cryoconservation have been collected and a new project for transferring embryos across borders have been initiated in the attempt to maintain and hopefully to increase both the breeding population size as well as its genetic diversity.

Figure 9: Number of breeds per species and their risk status for Faroe Islands.
Number of breeds: 4.

Finland hosts 18 breeds, including the transboundary breeds the Nordic Brown bee, the Fennoscandian reindeer, and the Finnish Ayrshire with their contribution to the VikingRed breeding program (Figure 10). Of native breeds only two populations are not at risk (the Finnish landrace chicken and Finnsheep; Figure 10). All of the cattle breeds are endangered, but they are also maintained in conservation programs according to the data provided in DAD-IS. The Finnish sheep breeds appear to be doing the best, with two breeds that are vulnerable and one that is not at risk. Most of the remaining breeds (the Finnhorse with its four lineages, Finngoat, and four of the native dog breeds) are considered endangered in terms of the annual number of breeding females, while the Finnish landrace cat has an undetermined status since it is not included in the Finnish conservation program and has no official registration system.  

Figure 10:  Number of breeds per species and their risk status for Finland.
Total number of breeds, including transboundary breeds: 18.

There are seven breeds that are native to Iceland. The cattle, sheep and horse breeds are not considered at risk (Figure 11), but it is important to monitor these breeds with regards to future increase in inbreeding. The Icelandic goat breed is considered endangered, and a conservation plan was issued in 2012 by the Genetic Resource Council. Since 1965, goat breeders have received subsidies for winterfed goats. In the early 20^th century, the Icelandic sheep dog breed underwent a drastic bottleneck and the need to save the breed was urgent. In 1974-76, collection of dogs and native chickens was made all over the country to save the remaining animals. Today they are bred within the Icelandic Dog Association and the Icelandic Chicken Owner and Breeder Association and included in the national conservation programme. The leader sheep was considered a subpopulation of the Icelandic sheep until 2017 when it was given the status as a breed on its own. Today the leader sheep are considered at risk. Iceland is the only country in the Nordics where the native breeds are the primary breeds used in agriculture due to strict rules that prevent import of animals.

Figure 11: Number of breeds per species and their risk status for Iceland.
Total number of breeds: 7.

Norway has the second largest proportion of breeds and subspecies in the Nordic region (43 breeds and populations of the transboundary Nordic Brown Bee and Fennoscandian reindeer); see Supplementary 1: Breed status Table E. Norwegian national breeds population size and conservation status. The breeds that are not considered at risk are all used in commercial production systems, and most of these populations are either sheep, pigs or goats (Figure 12). The largest percentage of the breeds are categorised as endangered. The critically endangered breeds are the Trønder-rabbit and most of the Norwegian dog breeds. The status of the goose and cat breeds in Norway are currently undetermined. Cat breeds are not part of the conservation program in Norway.

Figure 12:  Number of breeds per species and their risk status for Norway.
Total number of breeds, including transboundary breeds: 45.

Sweden houses the largest portion of breeds (70 breeds including the transboundary breeds) (Table 2). Of these breeds, five are considered not at risk (three national breeds and two transboundary breeds, respectively (Figure 13). Another seven have an undetermined status (the Swedish dwarf chicken, the Fifty-five Flowery chicken, the Swedish landrace cat, the Europé cat, the Hällefors dog, the Swedish white Elkdog and the Swedish fur rabbit), and four are considered vulnerable (the Swedish mountain cattle (i.e., Svensk Fjällras), the North-Swedish horse, the Åsbo chicken and the Värmland sheep). The remaining breeds are considered as endangered and critically endangered (37 and 14, respectively). Cattle and dogs are the species with the highest proportion of breeds that are critically endangered. Sweden is the only country to include a breed of fish in their conservation program. However, this report only includes terrestrial animals, and it is thus not included in these statistics.

Figure 13:  Number of breeds per species and their risk status for Sweden.
Total number of breeds including transboundary breeds: 70.

Many of the Nordic farm animal breeds were developed from animal populations which migrated along with the people in the Nordics, and they have a common ancestry across the Nordic countries. However, as modern breeding emerged with the establishment of herd books within regions and countries, most of the populations today have diverged into specific breeds that have not interbred since the late 1800s or early 1900s. However, some subspecies or breeds are still not separated into individual national breeds but have populations that can be considered one across the Nordic borders. They can thus not be assigned to just one Nordic country. These transboundary breeds are the Nordic Brown Bee, the Fennoscandian Reindeer, the Danish-Swedish farmdog, and the VikingRed. The VikingRed is a transboundary commercial breeding programme based on the three Nordic Red breeds, Danish Red Dairy cattle, Swedish Red and White cattle, and Finnish Ayrshire.

There are also some breeds that are considered their own breed in their own country, but still interbreed across borders or have a history of doing so. This is for example the Norwegian and Swedish Coldblooded Trotter horse, who has a breed cooperation across borders. The Norwegian coloursided Tronder and Nordland cattle (STN), The Swedish Mountain Cattle and the Northern Finncattle are also examples of breeds that have exchanged animals across the borders, and sometimes still do. However, as they are also considered separate breeds, with a population belonging within their respective countries, these breeds will not be presented in this section. Breeds with one country of origin that have populations in several countries (typical for horses, dogs and cats) are also not presented in this section. Following is a presentation of the breeds or subspecies that we were not able to assign to one single country or are otherwise considered transboundary. 

Honeybees are producers of honey, beeswax and propolis. As pollinators, they are an essential part of the ecosystem, and their decline is predicted to have detrimental effects. Maintaining the genetic variation of honeybees is therefore crucial for future sustainability.

There are four main subspecies of honeybees in the Nordics: Carniolan, Italian, Brown and Buckfast bees. The Brown bee (Apis mellifera mellifera, also known as the European Dark or Black bee) is considered as the original honeybee subspecies in the Nordics. The subspecies migrated from the Southwest of the Alps towards the north after the ice age and reached southern Scandinavia approximately 10 000 years ago (NordGen, N.D.).

The Brown bee has evolved and adapted to different climatic conditions in Europe, including the Nordics (see for examples Schauman et al., 2024), which has led to large variations in both characteristics and brood rhythm. It is described to have longer hair and a larger body size than other bee types. The bee subspecies is also known to behaviourally adapt to their environment, and to venture out even if it is cold or wet, which make them suitable for the Nordic countries.

Intensive agricultural areas, together with habitat loss and climate change, have contributed to the decline of important pollinators, including the brown bee. Competition from other subspecies with a higher honey yield is also a threat to the brown bee. At present the Brown bee is at high risk of extinction, despite having dominated vast parts of Europe until the 1900s. Important conservation efforts for the Brown bee have been initiated both internationally (i.e., the International Association for the Protection of the European Dark bee (SICAMM)), in the Nordics (i.e., the Nordic Brown Bee Network) and within countries through e.g. Brown bee beekeeper's associations. Country-experts in the Nordic Brown Bee Network created an action plan for the Nordic Brown bee, which was updated in 2019

Second Plan of Action for the Conservation of the Nordic Brown Bee. (2019). Retrieved from https://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:norden:org:diva-5627

.  

The breeding pattern of honeybees is very different from mammalian species. The queen will fly up to 10 km from the beehive and mate with as many drones as she can in this area. This makes it challenging to keep the bees a pure subspecies. Thus, it is necessary to create areas where the only bees allowed to be kept are of the same subspecies to avoid intermixing. It is also important to have mating stations for queens that can be kept pure. This is often done on islands, as the queens usually do not cross bodies of water.

There are colonies of purebred brown bees in Sweden, Denmark, Finland and Norway (Table 3). Local beekeepers in these countries that are interested in conservation of this subspecies are crucial for the Brown bee. The future of the Brown bee depends on cooperation, consistent characterization of bee populations to exchange breeding material when necessary, and the development, improvement and sharing of management techniques (Second Plan of Action for the Conservation of the Nordic Brown Bee, 2019).

* 1000-1100 of the 4000 colonies are kept in the legal conservation area in Flekkefjord, Sokndal and Lund.

** About 100 queens from 5 to 9 different breeding lines are mated yearly, and the official gene bank maintains four of them (Lauri Ruottinen, personal communication).

*** Mating station on an Island in Lake Vänern.

Data Source: NordGen Brown Bee Network

1/3 of the world’s reindeer populations currently reside in the north of Norway, Sweden and Finland (approximately 200 000 domestic individuals in each country). These animals are described as highly robust to both the cold and vegetation in these areas, which is not surprising as they have been adapting to these climates for millennia. 

Before they were tamed, wild reindeer were hunted. After being domesticated by the Sami people, they were used for transportation and to attract wild reindeer herds. Their use gradually shifted towards reindeer pastoralism and production of meat (Bjørklund, 2013). The reindeer migrate across borders depending on where they can find winter and summer pasture. However, migration was reduced after the closure of the borders in the North in the mid to late 1800s.

At present, reindeer husbandry is threatened by climate change, and while the reindeer in the Nordics are not considered as at risk of extinction, the future adaption and selection of reindeer depend largely on the pre-existing genetic diversity of the animals. This highlights the importance of estimating important genetic parameters to broaden the understanding of their genetic variation and possibly enhance the future viability of reindeer husbandry.

Reindeer husbandry is not considered as at risk in the Nordics (Table 4), which is why little to no conservation efforts are in place for this species. However, interest in improved understanding of the reindeer have prompted several studies consi­de­ring both their origin, historical migration and genetic development. Furthermore, the species is included in the conservation program in both Sweden and Finland, with some samples from the Finnish reindeer already stored in a gene bank.  

1 Ressursregnskap for reindriftsnæringen 2023

2 Rennäringens tillstånd 2020

The Nordic Red cattle breeds, now referred to as VikingRed and Norwegian Red cattle, are robust and high yielding dairy cattle. VikingRed was created in 2008 as a breeding program to promote the genetic development of the red breeds in Denmark, Sweden and Finland

https://www.vikinggenetics.com/

. The genetic composition of modern Nordic Red dairy breeds includes contributions from Scottish Ayrshire cattle from the 1800s and early 1900s, as well as local cattle breeds native to the Nordic countries. Additionally, these breeds have shared some key sires during the 20th century and early 2000s. Despite these shared genetics, the breeds have developed independently. Besides being robust and high yielding, these dairy cattle have other valuable attributes. For example, their breeding strategy has included a focus on health and fertility since the 1970s, which gives them an edge over other breeds. Further, the natural health and longevity of the Nordic Red cattle also make them popular in crossbreeding. 

The maintenance of the Nordic Red breeds belongs to two breeding companies: VikingGenetics (VikingRed) and Geno (Norwegian Red), which are responsible for determining the breed’s breeding goals. There are about 175 000 Norwegian Red cattle in milk recording systems (Table 5), and the population of Danish Red Dairy cattle, Swedish Red and White and Finnish Ayrshire is all together ~350 000 animals. However, not all cattle of these breeds belong to the VikingRed breeding program; there are about 125 000 cows total in the Viking Red population (Table 5). The Nordic Red breeds served as the primary dairy breeds in the Nordic countries for a long time. However, Holstein cattle has taken over more and more, especially in Sweden, Finland and Denmark. Although the populations are not currently in danger of extinction, their numbers have declined over the past 50 years due to increased competition with the Holstein, in addition to improved yield through breeding.

¹ NAV – Nordisk Avlsværdi Vurdering
* The VikingRed population according to numbers from NAV is outside parenthesis, and the total number of the local Red cattle inside parenthesis (according to DAD-IS).

** Year reflects the year data was from in DAD-IS.

The Danish-Swedish farmdog probably originates from pincher and fox terrier type dogs, and is an avid rat hunter, guard- and companion dog. This type of dog was very common on farms in southern Sweden and Denmark. However, due to industrialisation, the breed was becoming rarer in the mid 1900s and was in danger of extinction. In 1985, the Danish and Swedish kennel club collaborated to preserve the breed, and it was acknowledged as its own breed in 1987. Both Denmark and Sweden are the acknowledged home countries of this breed, and thus it is listed in our transboundary breed list.

The Danish- Swedish farmdog is considered endangered (Table 6), but in the last decade it has become a very popular family and sporting dog in many countries, so the total number of dogs of this breed worldwide is probably much higher.

¹ Jansson et al. 2018

Like the Nordic production animals, the Nordic dogs and cats have an important historical value. For example, cats have been illustrated in Norse mythology, and both cats and dogs have been used as pest control. Furthermore, companion animals play an important social value: Several studies (Wells, 2009; Beets et al., 2012; Ravenscroft et al, 2021) have determined that owning and taking care of a pet can improve both physical and mental health. In addition to their cultural significance and social importance, many native companion animals may have favourable characteristics not sufficiently characterized yet. Efforts for conserving companion animals (e.g., cats and dogs) differ between the Nordic countries, because there are different requirements for which breeds to include in the official conservation programmes.

Most of the dog breeds native to the Nordic countries are Spitz type dogs with a long, thick coat suitable for rough winters. The Nordic Spitz dogs had various uses; for example, they were reindeer herders, bird-, moose- and bear hunters, as well as all-round farm dogs. They were also used for pest control and companionship. There is also a significant number of Nordic Hound dogs used for hunting for example hare. All the Nordic native dog breeds are part of their own breeding association with the national kennel clubs as an umbrella, providing information and advice for the choice of breeds to potential owners. Depending on the country of residence, the breed organisations gather important information regarding the populations, such as number of breeding animals and genetic parameters. Many of the Nordic dog breeds have a long history of having been used for hunting, guarding and pest control. As the need for these uses have declined today, so have the population sizes of the Nordic dogs, and most of them are either endangered or critically endangered.

Cats have been a traditional part of Nordic farms and homes for centuries with an important role as pest control and companion animal. Most cats are not part of a breed or breeding scheme, but present more like a landrace – these are usually referred to as “farm cats” or “house cats”. The Swedish Landrace cat

https://bondkatten.se/index.php/bondkatten/

and the Finnish Landrace cat (often referred to the as the Finnish national cat; Hassinen, 2016) are two examples of Nordic cat breeds that can be put into this category. There are also two pedigree cat breeds, the European Shorthair (also known as Europé

http://europeringen.se/

) and the Norwegian Forest cat

http://www.norskskogkattring.no/Norsk_Skogkatt/Norsk_Skogkatt_Norsk_Skogkattring.shtml

^,

https://katt.nrr.no/Katter/kissat.aspx

which are considered native to the region. Pedigree cat breeds are registered in a breed registration, their pedigrees are recorded, and their breeding is organised by breeders and breed associations^[5,6,7].

Cats are only included in the official conservation program in Sweden, and it is mandatory to register all cats with the Swedish Board of Agriculture. It is not, however, mandatory to register which breed these cats belong to. Therefore, the population number of the Swedish landrace cat is currently undetermined. However, Lantrasföreningen Bondkatten describes its status as critically endangered and recommends establishing ex situ protection^[4]. Finland is making an effort to implement a registration system similar to Sweden’s for all cats in the next few years.

In Norway, measures to protect the Norwegian Forest cat began in the middle of the 20^th century: It was feared that the breed would become extinct, which lead to the establishment of the Norwegian Forest Cat Breeding Association (Norsk Skogkattring^[6]). Today the association hosts a website with important information and history about the Norwegian Forest cat. Further, the national cat association ‘Norske Rasekattklubbers Riksforbund’^[7] hosts a database with the number of registered pedigree breed cats in Norway, including the Norwegian Forest cat.

There are some Nordic breeds that have already gone extinct or were merged with other breeds. Most of them are not conserved in a gene bank and their genetics have therefore been lost. The extinct breeds that are conserved in a gene bank is the Swedish landrace pig, the Norwegian (Norsvin) Yorkshire and the Faroese Cattle (only mixed breed conserved).

Following are the known extinct breeds that are not conserved: In Sweden, there are four extinct cattle breeds; Rödbrokig Swedish cattle, Heregård cattle, Skåne cattle and Småland cattle. These breeds eventually merged and became part of the Swedish Red population. Sweden also has two extinct horse breeds: Färsingehäst and Ölandshäst. In Finland, the landrace pig with its three distinct populations (i.e., länsisuomalainen luppakorva, savo-karjalainen pirtasika and pohjoissuomalainen sika) became extinct in 1960s. In Norway, the Finnmark cattle was eradicated during WWII. If there were any remaining cattle of the breed, they were merged with Nordland cattle that later merged with Røros cattle and became what is known today as the Coloursided Tronder and Nordland Cattle (STN). There were many local cattle breeds in Norway at the end of the 1800s, however most of them merged into what is today known as Norwegian Red (NRF). Some of those breeds were Målselv cattle, Rød trønder cattle and Lyngdal cattle. Norway did for a short time have breeding lines of broiler chicken that are now extinct. Other extinct breeds are the Lofoten horse, Tauter sheep and the Norwegian White Landrace rabbit/Kvit smålenskanin. In Denmark, Økvæg, Angler and Ballum cattle merged with Danish Red cattle. There might be more types and breeds that have existed in the Nordic countries that are missing from this list as many of the breeds went extinct around the late 1800s to early 1900s and were never thoroughly recorded.

Through searching available literature, information regarding inbreeding was found for 91 of the 167 breeds, while N_e estimates were found for 79 of the breeds (Figure 14A and B). Of the available estimates for inbreeding, genomics has been used for most of the breeds (43), pedigree methods were used for 33 of the breeds and 15 breeds had available information from both genomic and pedigree calculations. Available estimates for inbreeding, and the list of breeds with available estimates for N_e are presented in Supplementary 3: Genetic parameters tables 1-2; since there are different ways of calculating the inbreeding coefficient and N_e, the comparison of any values is not feasible. A list of breeds and the corresponding literature with inbreeding and N_e can be found in Supplementary 3, Tables 1 and 2. Disclaimer: this was based on a limited literature review and some studies could have been missed.

According to FAO, it is recommended to implement cryoconservation measures for breeds that are endangered and critically endangered. This will safeguard the remaining genetic diversity in the populations (Table 7). Since most of the Nordic breeds are either endangered or critically endangered, establishment of complementary cryoconservation is needed following FAO recommendations.

Nordic efforts for cryoconservation began in the 1980s (Maijala, 2011). According to DAD-IS, Norway has the largest number of stored samples (762 162), followed by Finland (217 649) and Sweden (76 273; Table 8). However, in terms of different samples (i.e., embryo, somatic cells, oocytes, semen etc.) Finland has the largest distribution and is the only country that has registered in DAD-IS that they have stored DNA and embryos in addition to semen for their production animals (Table 8). According to DAD-IS there is stored material from 78 of the total number of Nordic breeds (both native and Nordic-transboundary). According to FAO’s definition for risk status, 119 of the breeds are considered either endangered or critically endangered. 60 of these breeds have cryopreserved material stored in gene banks, while the remaining 59 do not. It is important to consider that the data reported by DAD-IS does not always reflect the actual situation within the country, as reporting is not mandatory.

The number of cryoconserved samples from Nordic native breeds (collective under species) that have been registered in DAD-IS is shown below (Table 9) and shows that efforts have been largest in cattle and sheep.

* The number of stored samples is underestimated for these species as the registered cryopreserved breeds from Denmark only includes the number of donors and not the number of samples in DAD-IS.

^£ There are samples that are cryoconserved from the Swedish Landrace pig, the Norsvin Yorkshire, and the Faroese cattle, but these breeds are extinct. This report focuses mainly on the breeds that still have live populations.

Cryopreserved semen has been the main stored material (Table 9). According to DAD-IS, the number of donors per breed varies largely. The number of breeding animals that is needed to maintain a healthy population without risk of inbreeding depression is above 50. In an evaluation of gene banking status conducted by the Centre for Genetic Resources Netherlands (CGN) of Wageningen University & Research the sufficiency of the stored material was determined according to three categories: safe (a sustainable population can be reconstituted, inbreeding rate: <0.25% per generation), compromised (higher rates of inbreeding will be present, 0.67% per generation, and little to no selection should be conducted), and at risk (will lead to an inbreeding rate of 1% per generation). For the banked breeds to be considered safe, there should be at least 50 male donors. The number of doses necessary is species-specific and sometimes varies between breeds (e.g., commercial vs native poultry breeds).

According to DAD-IS, the number of breeds with more than 50 semen donors with enough doses in the Nordics at the beginning of 2024 was 19 (Figure 15; Table 10). Most of these breeds are Norwegian native cattle and sheep breeds. Most of the breeds have stored samples from less than 50 donors – i.e., they do not yet have enough donors stored for the breed to be considered safe according to the criteria presented by Wageningen. Furthermore, samples that include female genetic information (e.g., embryos, oocytes, DNA or somatic cells) are mostly missing. For some species (e.g., avian species) cryopreservation protocols for reproductive tissues still need further optimisation.

Figure 15: The number of donors of cryoconserved semen for AnGR in the Nordic countries according to DAD-IS and the Faroese horse association (2024).
Total number of breeds with samples: 78.

Table 10: The number of Nordic breeds within each risk category for cryoconservation (safe, compromised, at risk, insufficient, unknown).
The risk categories are based on the number of donors per breed, and the data was extracted from DAD-IS (2024).

It is important to emphasise that there is no standard way of reporting required by DAD-IS, subsequently it is difficult to know whether the reported number per year reflects the total number of conserved samples or the total samples collected for the reported year. This highlights the necessity for either being able to enter some description for how the data should be interpreted or to promote a standardised way for the data to be entered. This is not only relevant for the entries of cryopreserved material, but also in terms of population number, and number of breeding males and females in the populations. The data for cryoconservation presented in this report is based on the last entries reported from the countries. Some of the countries have had no new entries since 2020. Whether this reflects that no new material has been preserved since then, or if it is because there has been lack of available information, is unknown. Nevertheless, gathering and reporting the correct information for these efforts is important for evaluating the status of cryoconservation in the Nordics, and further to evaluate the risk status of different breeds in a larger perspective, and in terms of future population sustainability. 

There is an option to define whether the status of cryoconservation of a breed is sufficient or not in DAD-IS. This is something that is defined by each country on their own (i.e., not as above by following our definition) and could vary from country to country. According to these statistics, 41% of cattle breeds, 41% of sheep and 22% of goat breeds have enough samples in frozen gene banks while for other species there is either no information, no material or not sufficient material (Figure 16).

Figure 16: Status of cryoconservation according to input to DAD-IS.
Total number of breeds: 167.

Lack of systematic breeding and conservation efforts could lead to incomplete identification of donors (Boes et al., 2023). Utilising the samples without sufficient background information about the sanitary status, pedigree or genotype information, risks introducing infectious diseases and unwanted genetic mutation into the population. Thus, collectively organised efforts concerning phenotypic and genomic characterisation of breeds in the frozen gene bank would ensure better management of the genetic diversity of the breeds in the future. Furthermore, infrastructure allowing diagnostics of the sanitary status of the potential donor animals is also important.