Abstract: Egyptian buffaloes are considered one of the most important dual purpose farm animals that represent 44% of dairy animals in Egypt. In 1980, the Animal Production Research Institute (APRI) imported 93 Pakistani semen straws for crossbreeding to improve milk productivities. In 2003, Ministry of Agriculture (MoA) allowed the commercial importation of Italian buffalo semen, which randomly utilized in some large scale buffalo farms. This study aims to evaluate the Egyptian buffalo crosses with both Pakistani and Italian buffaloes for some productive traits to assess the crossing trials. For the first trial of the study, 180 records (85 pure Egyptian buffaloes (E), 22 record 1/2 Egyptian (E) 1/2 Pakistani (PA) buffaloes and 52 record 3/4E 1/4PA buffaloes and 21 record 7/8E 1/8PA) through the period from 1980 to 1998 were used for the evaluation of Egyptian (E) Pakistani (PA) crossbred. Data for the second trial, concerned with the evaluation of the Egyptian (E) Italian (I) crosses, was collected from two private farms. A total 138 records; 64 record from Ganat Elreda farm (32 record E and 32 record 1/2E 1/2I) and 74 records from "United Group farm" (26 record E and 48 record 1/2E 1/2I buffaloes) was utilized. Utilized record covers the period from 2005 to 2009. Average for total milk yield was nearly the same for Egyptian and its cross with Pakistani buffaloes. In trial 1, Milk yield generally tended to increase with the advancement of parities till the ≥7 parity. Egyptian buffaloes showed the highest values for all growth traits measures. In trial 2, significant difference in milk productivity between the Egyptian and its Italian crossbred, which was significantly higher (P 0.001) in farm 2 than it is in farm 1 (P 0.01), was observed. The same trend in difference was detected for the parity effect. Italian crosses showed higher least square means (LSM) estimates for total milk yield (TMY) than the Egyptian buffaloes, which also increased with the advancement of the parity, in the two farms. LSM data reveal increase of 27 and 15% in 1/2E1/2I crossbred milk production than the Egyptian in farm 1 and farm 2, respectively. Difference between the highest and lowest breeding value (BV) in the Egyptian population is larger than it is in the crossbred population. More studies are recommended for the assessment of productive, reproductive and genetic diversity of crossbred populations before the enhancement of crossbreeding activities on national level. [Fooda, T. A.; Elbeltagy, A. R.; Laila R. Hassan and SetEl-habaeib S. Awad. Assessment of Egyptian buffaloes crossing with Pakistani and Italian buffaloes for some production traits
