ANIMAL GENETIC RESOURCES IN NEAR EAST AND NORTH AFRICA REGION WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TO EGYPT AND SMALL RUMINANTS.

SUMMARY
Near East and North Africa (NENA) countries are endowed with rich animal genetic
resources (AnGR). To maintain such valuable diversity, the countries need to update and
upgrade the information on their livestock breeds and develop their sustainable utilization.
NENA countries are apparently among the least countries with endangered breeds. This
conclusion could be due partly to the fact that little development took place for their breeds but
could also be due to the fact that the great part of these breeds are with no population statistics,
hence no objective evaluation of their degree of endangerment. Iran has got the highest
number of reported small ruminant breeds among NENA countries (41) followed by Morocco
(38) and Sudan (28). Egypt has got listed 12 breeds of sheep and 7 of goats. Greatly needed is
the establishing of the institutional structures for the proper management of AnGR. Countries
need to network among them and with the international organization and to establish a
Regional Focal Point to catalyze such networking.