
The water buffalo is vital to the lives of small farmers and to the economy of many countries worldwide. Not only are they draught animals, but they are also a source of meat, horns, skin and particularly the rich and precious milk that may be converted to creams, butter, yogurt and many cheeses. A total of thirty buffalo (fifteen were river buffalo and fifteen swamp buffalo) from south Iraq (Basrah city) were used in this study. Depending on the feature , morphology and location the animals were classified to do the genetic study. The karyotype of river buffalo 2n = 48 represented by 2 pairs of metacentric chromosomes,4 pairs submetacentric, 17 pairs acrocentric and 1 pair telocentric chromosomes (Figures.3 & 4). While the karyotype of swamp buffalo 2n=50 represented by 1 pair of metacentric chromosomes, 4 pairs submetacentric, 19 pairs acrocentric and 1 pair telocentric chromosomes. These subspecies differ by one chromosome; a fusion between river buffalo (BBU) chromosome 4 and 9 is comparable to swamp buffalo chromosome 1, and all chromosomes and chromosome arms are preserved between these two subspecies.