Comprehensive research has been launched to prepare the genetic maps of Karabakh and Dilbaz national horse breeds, which hold strategic importance for Azerbaijan.

The project is being implemented at the initiative of the Ministry of Agriculture of Azerbaijan with the support of Baku State University (BSU) and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO). The Animal Husbandry Research Institute, the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry of Türkiye, "Letgen Biotechnology," and "Bayramlı Group" are also involved as project partners.

The main goal of the project is to preserve the genetic heritage of Karabakh and Dilbaz horses, study their structural and functional diversity at the genomic level, and contribute to the development of scientifically grounded selection and breeding programs.

At the initial stage, phenotypic evaluations were carried out in various horse-breeding farms with the participation of local specialists and invited experts from Türkiye, during which blood and hair samples were collected from horses.

Based on the analysis of these samples, scientific and practical objectives have been identified. For the first time, the complete genome maps of Karabakh and Dilbaz horse breeds will be developed. The project foresees the application of marker-assisted selection (MAS) technologies in breeding, the identification of correlations between genotype and phenotype to enhance selection efficiency, the preservation of genetic data in an electronic database (genobank), and the integration of research results into international scientific databases, including NCBI.

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