Faroese sheep expand overall global ovine genetic diversity

Despite known imports of sheep from neighboring countries after the year 1600, this is poorly reflected in the genotyping data. One possible explanation could be that the present-day Faroese sheep have an unbroken genetic link to the pre-year 1300 Faroese sheep (which possibly were a mix of old-Norse and old-British/Irish animals), regardless of the presumed post-year 1600 influence from other breeds in the North Atlantic region.