Genetic diversity in livestock animals has become recognized as important genetic resource for future sustainable livestock production. Especially native breeds, adapted to their local environment, are of considerable interest. Here, we report a genome-wide characterization of two native Danish sheep breeds, the Danish Landrace sheep and the Danish White-Headed Marsh sheep. We investigated the genetic diversity both at national and European breed level using a European-derived reference panel. The native Danish breeds are genetically distinct from other Nordic breeds. Their closest relatives are Border Leicester, Galway, and Texel. Apart from gene flow between native Danish breeds, Texel admixture was most dominant. For Danish Landrace sheep, a population split into two genetically distinct sub-populations was detected. Compared to other livestock species, genomic inbreeding was moderate. However, among European-derived sheep the native Danish breeds were among the 10 most inbred investigated, illustrating the need for sustainable management strategies to preserve genetic diversity.

牲畜的遗传多样性已被公认为是未来可持续牲畜生产的重要遗传资源。尤其适合本地环境的本地品种引起了极大的兴趣。在这里，我们报告了两个本地丹麦绵羊品种，丹麦长白羊和丹麦白头沼泽羊的全基因组表征。我们使用欧洲参考小组调查了国家和欧洲品种水平的遗传多样性。丹麦本土品种与其他北欧品种在遗传上是不同的。他们最亲近的亲戚是边境莱斯特，戈尔韦和特塞尔。除了丹麦本地品种之间的基因流动外，特克塞尔混合物是最主要的。对于丹麦长白羊，发现了一个分为两个遗传上不同的亚群的种群。与其他牲畜物种相比，基因组近交是中等的。但是，在欧洲衍生的绵羊中，丹麦本土品种是近交调查的十个近亲之一，这说明了需要采取可持续管理策略来保护遗传多样性的需求。