Association of Hungarian Small Animal Breeders (MGE) was founded as an NGO by the breeders of old Hungarian poultry breeds, with the participation of the Institute for Small Animal Research (KATKI, Godollo) in 1997. In 1998 and 2004, the Association was appointed as the only breeding organisation of the old Hungarian, indigenous and other local varieties of poultry, including 7 chicken, 1 Guinea fowl, 2 turkey, 2 goose and 2 duck breeds or varieties. Since then, MGE has been organising and supervising gene conservation, breed collection and registration of elite, grandparent and parent stocks of old Hungarian poultry breeds. Registration of farmers for Hungarian agri-environment protection programme with traditional poultry production has also been the task of MGE since 2004. Number of members of the Association was 100 on 1 January, 2015. Founding chairman of MGE is Dr. Istvan Szalay. MGE is a member organisation of the Association of Hungarian Animal Breeders since 1999.