Amadou Traoré made a noticeable contribution to science in West Africa. His work was focused on the characterization of major livestock species in Burkina Faso: caprine, ovine, cattle, Guinea fowl and chicken. These species play a major role in maintenance of rural populations in conditions of extreme poverty (in Burkina Faso but also in the whole West Africa) and have relevant cultural importance. In this respect, the work carried out by Amadou Traore give significant scientific added value in terms of improving knowledge on local West-African farm animal genetic resources and will be the basis for the establishment of further characterization, conservation and selection strategies in West African livestock. His work includes different sources of information including zoometry and qualitative type traits, but also genetic information based on neutral somatic (microsatellites) and mitochondrial (D- loop) DNA markers.