Cattle, red cell antigens as determined by a selected battery of 37 reagents characterizing genes at 10 major loci in 101 Zebu, 63 Ndama and 78 Muturu from Nigeria, have been compared with corresponding red cell antigens of a total of 257 Bos taurus cattle in Norway, the Netherlands, France, Spain, Hungary and USA. The Zebu cattle, represented by the three subtypes Gudali, Red Bororo and Shuwa Arab, showed the highest number of red cell factors. Ndama and Muturu cattle had a significantly lower number of blood factors than the Zebu cattle. The lowest number of blood factors were found in European Bos f a u n s breeds.