Principle of Selection in Animal Breeding
- Principle of selection in animal for breeding (also called artificial selection) is the process by which humans use animal breeding to selectively develop particular phenotypic traits (characteristics) by choosing which typically animal males and females will sexually reproduce and have offspring together.
- Once producers understand the requirements of the target market and have developed breeding objectives that are aligned to these requirements, they can begin selecting livestock that meet the breeding objectives.
- In animal breeding, techniques such as inbreeding, linebreeding, and outcrossing are utilized.
- Darwin used artificial selection as a springboard to introduce and support the theory of selection.
Selection Based on individuality
- Selection on the basis of individuality means that selecting an individual on the basis of its individual phenotypic values (appearance/type of production performance). This is otherwise known as Performance test.
Limitations
- It is difficult to practice if the trait is sex limited e.g. milk production, litter size.
- Individual selection is not effective if the heritability of traits is low.
- It cannot be practiced for carcass traits.
Selection based on Pedigree
- Pedigree is a record of an individual’s ancestors related to it through its parents or Pedigree of
- an animal is a record of its ancestor, which includes sire, dam, grand sire, grand dam, and earlier
- From a practical standpoint knowledge on the productivity of the ancestors is necessary if pedigree is to be useful; such pedigrees are known as performance pedigree.