Native breeds are domestic animal breeds of a specific country's origin. The number of these animals has decreased so much that they are in danger of extinction. The native breeds are part of our national heritage. The genetic heritage of these animal breeds should also be preserved for future generations. The native breeds of Finland are:
Finnhorse
Finn cattle: west, east and north cattle of Finland.
Finnsheep, Kainuu grey sheep and Åland sheep
Finnish goat
Finnish native chicken (various strains)
Finnish native dogs: Finnish hound, Finnish standing ear dog, Karelian bear dog, reindeer hounds, seiskari dog.
Nordic Dark Bee
Reindeer (semi-domesticated)
Native breeds are very well suited for the management of traditional landscapes. The Biodiversity Agreement signed at the UN Conference on Environment and Development (Convention of Biological Diversity, Nairobi 1992) concerns biodiversity issues. The goals of it is the sustainable use and preservation of genetic diversity. This is to mainten and develop the genetic variation for the future. The extinction of indigenous breeds also means the loss of national cultural heritage and the loss of research material. Each country takes care of its own animal genetic resources. In 1998, the Finnish Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry appointed an animal genetic resources working group. In 1991, the Finnish animal genetic resource working group decided that a genetic resource program for domestic animals would be drawn up for Finland. The program was published in 2004.
Michelson, Annika (2017) : Monitoring domestic animals at pastures Monitoring animals 17 min. (English subtititels)
Michelson, Annika: Why should we keep native breeds? (ppt) Recording 19 min.
Michelson, Annika: Why should be preserve and not breed? Preserving genetic diversity. (ppt) Recording 12 min.
Michelson, Annika: Michelson, Annika: Traditional life and manatement of native breeds (ppt) Recording 25 min.
Traditional beekeeping in Lithuania. The bees were kept in living pine trees. This video is recorded years ago at Lithuanian beekeeping museum.
Food Farmer Earth: Preserving Endangered Heritage Breeds of Livestock 5 min.
International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI): Africa's threatened livestock breeds 3 min.
Michelson, Annika: Practical experience in searching for native animals: Case: Estonian native sheep. (ppt) Recording 41 min.
Michelson, Annika: Finnish native breeds and needed research (ppt) Recording 18 min.
Read about Finnhorses Finnhorse. (google translate)
Michelson, Annika: Old art and photos of Estonian native horses (doc)
Michelson, Annika: Finncattle (ppt) Recording 25 min.
Old photos of Finnish cattle (NB! All are not native breeds) (ppt)
Kemikaali cocktail: Milk from native cattle is healthier. Article (google translate)
Michelson, Annika: Nordic Native Cattle (ppt) Recording 17 min.
Michelson, Annika: Estonian native cattle Native cattle in Estonia (ppt) Take a look at the photos.
Michelson, Annika: Northern European short-tailed sheep (ppt) Recording 34 min.
Old photos of Finnish native sheep (ppt) Take a look at the photos.
Michelson, Annika: Northern European native goat (ppt) Recording 12 min.
Vuohenyhdistys: Some thoughts about the small bucks by the Finnish goat association (google translate)
Michelson, Annika: Kenozero sheep 1 min.
Salmi, Anna-Kaisa (2022): Reindeer domestication and ancient reindeer husbandry Kalmistopiiri. (google translate)
Read Wikipedia: Reindeer hearding
Read page Native pig (google translate)
Read the page Native hen (google translate)
Take a look at old photos of hens in Finland (NG! All are not native hens).
Michelson, Annika: Native hens and their conservation work in Estonia (ppt). Recording 21 min.
Swedish native hen association homepage. Take a look at their page of photos of their native hens, ducks and geese (Lantraser Höns, Ankor, Gäss)
Norway have only one native hen, jærhøns. Read the page (google translater)
There is no native geese in Finland. Sweden have native geese in conservation. Old photos of geese in Estonia (doc).
Read: NordGen (2019): Second Plan of Action for the Conservation of the Nordic Brown Bee.
Traditional way to keep dark nordic bees See the film, 9:31 min. Password: Santiago2020
Michelson, Annika. Northern Native Dogs (ppt) Recording 42 min.
Michelson, Annika. Wild and Native cats (ppt) Recording 29 min.
Swedish Farm Cat association (check the hompage, no need to read it, it is in Swedish)
Possible native rabbits at Saaremaa island in Estonia (ppt) compare their looks with Gotland rabbits by looking in google for photos with the search word “gotlandskanin”.
FAO: The Second Report on the State of the World's Animal Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture in brief. FAO Commission on Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture. Assessments. 2015.
GenRes Bridge. Genetic resources for a food-secure and forested Europe (2020). Genetic Resources Strategy for Europe.
Bläuer, A.; Solala, H.; Kinnunen, J.; Rannamäe, E. Multidisciplinary History of Goats in Finland: A Comparative Approach. Heritage 2022, 5, 1947-1959.
Häme University of Applied Sciences. Finnish native cattle (students made homepage)
Kampioni, N (Beginning of 20th century?): Cattle in Tsar Russian territory (ppt) Häme University of Applied Sciences, Mustiala old photo collection.
Ji Yang, Xin Li; Li, Meng-Hua: Whole-genome resequencing of wild and domestic sheep identifies genes associated with morphological and agronomic traits. 4.6.2020. Nature Communications 11, article number: 2815 (2020)
Juan Deng; Xing-Long Xie; Dong-Feng Wang; Hong-Ping Zhang; Li Li; Meng-Hua Li: Paternal Origins and Migratory Episodes of Domestic Sheep. August 20.
Maaeluministeeriumi: Saen maatiaislammasmaatila Virossa (video) 5 min.
Michelson, Annika: Lithuanian native breeds
Michelson, Annika: Islantilaisia lampaita (valokuva-albumi)
Michelson, Annika: Virolaisia lampaita (ppt)
Michelson, Annika: Short-Tailed Sheep among Finno-Ugric Tribes.2008
Nordgen (4.10.2019): New big project will increase the knowledge of Nordic cattle breeds
Pokharel, Kisun; Weldenegodguad, Melak; Reilas, Tiina & Kantanen Juha (2024): EquCab_Finn: A new reference genome assembly for the domestic horse, Finnhorse Animal Genetics
Sild, E.; Värv, S.; Kaart, T.; Kantanen, J.; Popov, R.and Viinalass, H. 2019. Maternal and paternal genetic variation in Estonian local horse breeds in the context of geographically adjacent and distant Eurasian breeds. Wiley Online Library 2.9.2019.
Sørensen, Lydia H. & Nielsen, Vivi Hunnicke (Ed., 2017) Danske husdyrgenetiske ressourcer. Aarhus AU Universitet. DCA - Nationalt Center for Fødevarer og jurdbrug DCA Rapport NR. 100
Berres, M.E.; Kantanen, J.; Honkatukia, M.; Wolc, A. % Fulton, J.E. (2020): Heritage Finnish Landrace chickens are genetically diverse and geographically structured. Taylor & Francis Online, p. 81-94.
Drevinė Bitininkystė: Video playlist
Häme University of Applied Sciences: Dark bee (google translate)
Jørgensen, Dolly (2024). The Medieval Pig. The Boydell Press, Woodbridge. VERY GOOD BOOK!!
Natural Resources Institute Finland (17.6.2020): A Finnish research team sequenced the genome of reindeer. Sama artikkeli ruotsiksi.
Melak Weldenegodguad, Kisun Pokharel, Yao Ming, Mervi Honkatukia, Jaana Peippo, Tiina Reilas, Knut H. Røed & Juha Kantanen (2020): Genome sequence and comparative analysis of reindeer (Rangifer tarandus) in northern Eurasia. Nature. Scientific Reports 10, article number 8980(2020).