Author:
Kristi Prohm

Date of Publication:
May 24, 2019

Publication:
The Better Breeding Blog

Excerpt:
Inbreeding is the mating of closely related animals to increase homozygosity within a population. Common alleles become more concentrated — the gene frequency increases in other words — and animals become more and more closely related with each generation. The reliability of high performing animals producing more high performing animals becomes very predictable. It sounds like the only breeding approach you’ll ever need, but there can be consequences.

Outbreeding on the other hand increases heterozygosity by mating unrelated animals. New alleles are introduced and the gene pool widens. From this and the Hardy-Weinberg Equilibrium, it would appear that a breeding programme would go nowhere fast were it to rely solely on outbreeding. Yet there can be benefits.

Read the rest of the article: https://betterbreeding.solutions/index.php/blog/inbreeding-and-outbreeding-the-pros-and-cons-of-both