Table 1.

Short description of the five studied sheep populations of the Kyrgyzstan.

Main characteristics	Breeds
	Kyrgyz coarse wool	Alai	Tien-Shan	Gissar	Aykol
Period of creation	unknown	1934–1981	1950–1966	13th to 14th centuries	From 1990
	Lushikhin, 1964	Ernst et al., 1994			Lushihina, 2013
History of creation, breeds involved in the development	Indigenous	Complex crossing of local fat-rumped sheep with the Précoce and Sarajin rams	Mating local fat-rumped sheep with Précoce and then with Lincoln rams	Indigenous Central Asian sheep improved by folk selection	Crossing of local fat-rumped and local fine wool sheep with Gissar rams
	Lushikhin, 1964	Ernst et al., 1994			Lushihina, 2013
Tail type	Fat-rump	Fat-rump	Thin	Fat-rump	Fat-rump
	Ajibekov and Almeyev, 2008
Wool type	Coarse	Semi-coarse	Semi-fine	Coarse	Coarse
	Ajibekov and Almeyev, 2008
Main products	Meat, fat	Meat, carpet wool, skins	Meat, crossbred wool, skins	Meat, fat	Meat, fat
	Ajibekov and Almeyev, 2008
Breeding region	Whole territory	Osh (Batken) region	Central Tien-Shan area (Naryn)	Whole territory	Issykkul region
	Lushihina, 2013	Ajibekov and Almeyev, 2008		Kerven, 2011	Farrington, 2005