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 Alberes cattle breed is a Catalonian autochthonous bovine population located in the Alberes Massif (north east of Spain), in the eastern extreme of the Pyrenees Mountains, and is well adapted to this zone in which it mainly makes use of forest resources. Cows are small sized and rustic, living under a semi-feral management system with minimal human contact. Traditionally, two coat colour varieties, Black and Fawn, have been described. Nevertheless, in both coat colour types the wild-type allele (E+) of the extension locus predominates. The Alberes breed clusters within the Cantabrian trunk, although some other breeds may also have influenced the population during its history. All of the females are used for replacement and the surplus males are destined for fattening despite their low meat potential. Age at first calving ranges between 3 and 4 years. The 2007 census estimated the number of adult animals at 138 females and 9 males. The Alberes breed is considered as an Endangered Breed according to the FAO classification and intends to start an in situ minimum kinship conservation programme and also a cryoconservation scheme with embryos and semen.