LPRO 2805 3(2-2)

Animal Breeding Plans and Policies

 Learning objectives
Definition of Animal Breeding
Difference between Animal Breeding &
Reproduction
Factors which effects the performance of an animal
The main objective / role of the animal breeding
Approaches for L/S Improvements
 ANIMAL BREEDING
Animal Breeding is the application of genetic
principles for the improvement of farm animals.
The deliberate attempt to obtain improved genetic
gains is known as animal breeding.
The tools for genetic gains are the rationale use of
genetic principles that are termed as Animal
Breeding
Animal Reproduction is the mechanism by which
organisms give rise to other organisms of the same
kind. It may also be defined as the process by which
all organisms; both plants and animals duplicate
themselves.
 ROLE OF ANIMAL BREEDING
The performance of an animal is affected by
two factors:-
Genetics, the gene combination that it receives
from its both parents at the time of zygote
formation.
Environment, includes prenatal and postnatal
environments like type of birth (single or twin),
feeding, management, disease control measures
and other climatic conditions.
 ROLE OF ANIMAL BREEDING
The main objective of the animal breeding is:
Production of superior animals, better fit to environment
and perform (milk, meat & eggs) excellently by applying
genetic principles
Animal Breeder has been able to produce the
animals that are producing much more than their
ancestors
Dairy animals (milk, 60 kg/day; AFC 24 Months)
Beef animals (growth rate > 2.0 kg per day)
Poultry (Eggs 300 vs 140), Broiler (2 kg in 6 wks)
 DAIRY CATTLE IMPROVEMENT IN
UNITED STATES (Wisconsin State)
Year Milking cows Milk/Cow(Kg) Total Milk
(000 #) (000 Tons)
1930 22,218 2,049 45,526
1950 21,944 2,415 53,000
1970 12,000 4,432 53,185
1990 10,127 6,655 67,402
1992 9,839 7,010 68,976
(Wisconsin Dairy Facts, 1993)
 Approaches for Livestock Improvement

Through modifying environment

This approach is simplest and consists of
improvement in feeding regimes, management and
taking effective disease control measures.
This brings about immediate improvement in
performance of animals and show up better and
immediate results.
But these improvements are temporary in nature &
the animals revert to their less production as and
when the improved environments are withdrawn or
not continued year after year / generation after
generation
 Approaches for Livestock improvement

Through modifying genotypes

The second approach for livestock

improvement is through modifying the
genotypes of the population of farm animals
Genetic gains tend to be permanent when
attained.
Time consuming, expensive and laborious
 TOOLS FOR GENETIC IMPROVEMENT
Mating systems
Do not create new genes but reshuffle them in
desirable combinations
Changing the Gene Frequencies
Selection, migration, mutation, genetic drift
In large populations only powerful force available
with animal breeder is Selection
The other forces like mutation and migration are
of minor importance and chance variation or
random genetic drift show up its effect only in
small populations.
 TOOLS FOR GENETIC IMPROVEMENT
Neither selection nor mating systems can create new
genes.
They can, if properly applied create new and better
animals by putting the old genes in new pattern or
more useful combinations.
Genes not present in a population can sometimes be
found in other strains or breeds and can be
introduced in the population by crossing.
This is often the most feasible method of improving
certain characteristics and is largely used in plant
breeding operations. The breeders of pure stock or
breed associations did not allow such practices.
 MATING SYSTEMS
Mating systems --- decision which male be allowed to
mate with which female or a group of females among
the available breeding stock.
Mating systems do not change the frequency of
desirable or undesirable genes in the populations.
They help in reshuffling the genes among the
individuals of the population.
Close Breeding (Inbreeding, line breeding), Out
breeding are based on pedigree information
The decision to mate the individuals considering their
phenotypes is assortive mating
Each mating system has its own merits and demerits
 GENETIC IMPROVEMENT
Quantitative traits such as milk yield are not simply
transmitted as coat colour or horns (Qualitative traits),
which are controlled, by a few pairs of genes.
Instead thousands of pairs of genes are responsible for
their transmission to the next generation.
These traits are influenced by a number of genes
segregating at a number of loci and also by different
gene actions (additive, non additive etc.)
Such traits are also influenced by environmental factors,
like season, nutrition, management and diseases etc.
Most of the improvement in dairy cattle in the advanced
production set-ups has been achieved through the
manipulation of these genes to produce better animals.
 GENETIC IMPROVEMENT
Selection is an important tool for rearranging genetic
material to better-fit individuals for a particular
purpose.
It is a process in which certain individuals in a
population are preferred to others for the production
of the next generation.
Most of the improvement realized through selection
for increased productivity in farm animals results
from the identification and use of genetically superior
breeding males.
This is true because breeding male may produce
hundreds, or even thousands of progeny in his lifetime
even at many locations (countries), especially when
he is used for artificial insemination.
 GENETIC IMPROVEMENT
A genetically superior female, however, usually
produce not more than few offspring during her
lifetime
She has a smaller influence on the genetic
progress made through selection than does a
genetically superior breeding male.
Breeding male is needed to produce sperms, which
can make females pregnant.
But more importantly these sperms contain genes,
which are to be transmitted to the next generation.
These genes determine the ability of the next
generation to perform for the traits like milk
production.
 Role of Animal Breeder
To determine the mode of inheritance of the particular
traits like milk production,
To devise means of selecting as reproducers those
animals carrying the genes for the desired characters,
To practice mating systems that promise the maximum
degree of desirable genes recombination in progeny.
It is not an easy task, for no means has yet been
devised for examining critically each gene carried by a
parent and for identifying the traits it will condition in
a progeny. Rather a trait is identified by its appearance
in the parent and its inheritance is determined only
when it appears in a progeny.
 BREEDING/MATING SYSTEMS
Breeding systems are designed to combine the genes in a
population into the most advantageous genotypic combinations
They are another way of making the genetic progress (the first
approach being changing the frequency of desirable genes
through selection).
The breeding systems do not generally change the gene
frequency but only reshuffle the genes.
Random Mating
Close Breeding
Inbreeding
Line breeding
Out Breeding
Out Crossing
Crossbreeding
Species Crossing
 Random Mating
Mating of animals haphazardly is called as random mating.
In this process there is no selection and the animals are allowed
to mate at their own choice.
Each individual has equal opportunity to mate with any female.
According to Hardy-Weinberg Law in large populations under
random mating gene frequency and genotypic frequency will not
change.
In fact gene frequency does not change in any mating system
unless some selection is not practiced.
However, the genes in the population are reshuffled in the
animals and are put in new patterns.
This does not appear in case of random mating, so most of the
animal breeders do not consider random mating as a mating
system. There is no change expected in traits of economic
importance of farm animals where random is practiced
 Inbreeding
Mating of closely related individuals than the average of the
population is called inbreeding.
Mating of parent and offspring, brother and sister mating etc.
Since related animals have a higher than average probability of
carrying the same genes, offspring of related animals tend to be
homozygous at more loci than those from random mating systems.
Animals homozygous for detrimental recessive will express the
trait.
In the past, inbreeding has been utilized as a way of purifying
the breeds and concentrating the good genes. This was to come
about by increased homozygosity.
Inbred animals are often claimed to be prepotent.
The hope is that with more homozygous loci, the offspring will be
more uniform. Unfortunately some detrimental genes are also
concentrated.