RABBITS INBREEDING by Ayoola Najeemdeen
Can you
inbreed rabbits? More so, should you? What is breeding? What is line breeding?
BREEDING
Breeding, selective control of
mating in animals to produce organisms that better serve human needs for food,
work, sport, or aesthetics. Simple breeding methods have been employed
throughout human history. From paintings on the walls of Egyptian tombs,
archaeologists have determined that dogs were bred at least 4000 years ago, and
perhaps as early as 10,000 years ago. Ancient civilizations also domesticated
varieties of cattle, sheep, goats, and grains.
The history of breeding can be
divided into two periods: before and after the rediscovery in 1900 of Mendel's
concepts of heredity. Before 1900, breeders worked primarily by selecting from
each generation the animals or plants that displayed desired characteristics
and then breeding these individuals to produce the next generation. Although
this simple method, known as mass selection, produced some favorable results,
it was often a slow and unpredictable process. After the rediscovery of
Mendel's work, breeding became more predictable and scientific. Mendel's
principles showed that many traits are transmitted as discrete units, and over
successive generations these traits do not blend with or become corrupted by
other traits. Most importantly, Mendel's work showed that by analyzing breeding
results it is possible to predict which traits will occur, and in what
proportions, in the next generation. Thus, analysis of breeding results gives
the breeder knowledge about ge
Animal breeding has been
responsible for vastly improving agricultural yields over the past several
hundred years, and thus for improving the world's food supply. Systematic
breeding programs emerged in Europe and the United States on an increasingly
large scale during the Industrial Revolution in the late 18th century, partly
in response to the demand for more food to feed an increasingly urban,
nonagricultural workforce. In the 20th century, growing world populations have
also brought increased pressure to improve agricultural yields.
Modern animal-breeding practices
today are still based largely on mass selection, supplemented by three other
methods: pedigree selection, family
selection, and progeny selection. Pedigree selection focuses on the quality
of the ancestors rather than of the individual. Pedigree selection is useful in
evaluating young animals whose phenotypes are not fully developed, and in
selecting for traits that are known to have high heritability. However,
pedigree selection is a slow process. Family selection, based on analyzing the
qualities of relatives, is faster. Family selection is often used in
conjunction with individual selection, and it is valuable in estimating
sex-limited traits (egg-laying ability or milk production, for example) in
selecting the males from which to breed. Progeny selection involves selecting
individuals based on the records of their progeny. Like family selection, it is
useful when selecting for such sex-limited traits as milk yields in the progeny
of a bull and traits with low or uncertain heritability. However, progeny
selection is a slow process because it requires waiting for one generation or
more to determine the quality of a given individual's offspring.
Since the mid-18th century, animal
breeders have combined various methods of selection with inbreeding and
outbreeding of stocks. Inbreeding involves crosses between closely related
individuals. To fix or intensify a particular trait, herds or flocks are
subdivided into smaller groups and intensively inbred for several generations.
To increase vigor and avoid the accumulation of unwanted traits, individuals
from these inbred stocks are then outbred, or crossed with members of other
stocks. Outbreeding increases variability and produces new combinations of
traits. Increasingly in the 20th century, as methods for freezing and storing
sperm have been perfected, both inbreeding and outbreeding have been carried
out by artificial insemination. Embryo selection is another method by which the
breeder can increase desired traits in a population. In this method, fertility
hormones are given to females that carry selected characteristics. Once the
eggs have been fertilized, they are taken from the selected females and
implanted in other females that carry them through the gestation period and
then give birth. Embryo transfer is used less frequently than artificial
insemination because it is more complicated and more expensive.
LINE BREEDING RABBITS
Can you inbreed rabbits? What is
line breeding? More importantly, should you?
Line breeding is the process of
breeding closely related animals, usually father to daughter or mother to son,
in an effort to improve individual traits.
Inbreeding is the same as line
breeding but the animals are much more closely related, typically brother and
sister.
Nearly all animals have been
inbred or line bred at some point, and rabbits are no exception.
In fact every breed of
domesticated rabbit (or cow, dog, cat, and even fish) has been bred by humans
into what they are now.
Hundreds or sometimes thousands
of years of breeding lines have created the cows, pigs, sheep, and other farm
animals that we now have. Rabbits are no different.
Line Breeding vs. Inbreeding
Before
we begin it’s important to understand the difference between line breeding and
inbreeding.
Line breeding
Line breeding is the act of
breeding a father to a daughter, or a mother to son. It also could include
grandparents or sometimes great-grandparents. The deliberate mating of closely
related individuals in order to retain characteristics of a common ancestor
This lets you “line up” some of
the good genes so to speak. Line breeding can enhance good attributes but you
will also see some bad attributes amplified.
Inbreeding
Inbreeding is the act of breeding
brother to sister. Breeding such closely related animals can greatly enhance
traits, good and bad. The mating of closely related members of a specie,
especially over many generations.
It may be used to enhance desired
traits in animals or plants but is avoided in humans as it increases the risk
of unwanted inherited characteristics.
Inbreeding is a great way to “set”
the characteristics of the sire and dam but it can also create “bad rabbits”
that must be culled because of temperament, health, or deformities, more so
than with line breeding.
When you inbreed you should cull
heavily and only keep what you are really pleased with.
Don’t worry, you’re not going to
create a two headed Franken-rabbit because you inbred your rabbits, but you
should be aware that recessive genes good and bad will be enhanced much more
than with line breeding.
Why Inbreed/Line Breed
If you want to narrow the range
of genes in your rabbits, thereby enhancing the good and bad traits, and can
sort and cull out the poor results constantly and continuing on to the next
generation then you can enhance your breeding stock to your individual liking.
Even more so, if you have a good
eye and good judgment, you will create superior rabbit stock.
When you’re thinking about how to
get the best herd with the least amount of animals, there’s no doubt you have
to consider how closely you related want your rabbits to be over the long haul.
When you start out with good
stock and have a good herd and practice selective breeding, in-breeding and
line-breeding will build strength and not weakness.
Unless there are “bad” recessive
genes in your starting buck and doe that line up in their offspring, you can
(in theory) line breed rabbits for generations without encountering any
decline.
Line breeding enhances
characteristics both desirable and undesirable, so if there is an inherited
weakness then yes, it will become worse. If there is strength, the offspring
will improve with every generation.
That’s an oversimplification, but
it gives you the basic idea.
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