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Human started to create breeds by using artificial selection 250 years ago.
Animal breeding is mainly employed for improvement of animals by changing their genetic abilities for important traits.
These traits are determined by the requirements and wishes from the society and it may change over period of time.
Animal breeding is highly influenced by research and developments in population, quantitative and molecular genetics.
Sometimes, unexpected negative effects of animal breeding are observed that require adequate corrections.
Till 17th century animal breeding, as in selective breeding, did not really exist.
As usual people mated their animals with animals in the neighbourhood that they liked.
There was no systematic way of selecting animals for reproduction, based on predefined characteristics that did not change from mating to mating, but remained similar in time.
Robert Bakewell (1725 – 1795) introduced accurate records keeping of performance of animals so that objective selection became possible.
•He used inbreeding (mating of related animals with similar traits) to fix certain characteristics in animals
•Introduced progeny testing: the method of evaluating performance of the first (small) group of progeny and use that information to select the best father of future progeny.
•He promoted the idea to 'breed the best to the best'.
•Bakewell developed the New Leicester sheep from the old Lincolnshire breed. The New Leicester had good quality fleece and a good fatty shoulder that was popular at the time.
•Bakewell also noticed that Longhorn cattle were growing well and used less feed compared to other cattle. So he developed that further in order to grow more meat efficiently.
•It is amazing he did this without knowing anything about genetics and he is considered as Father of Animal Breeding
•Now many people started the selective breeding approach introduced by Bakewell.
•The growing number of generations of selective breeding, it became difficult to remember the relationships between the animals,
•Now, people start recording pedigree on paper, so that correct information could be reproduced and it could be proven that an animal was of a particular breed.
First herd book was for the thoroughbred horse and was established in England in 1791
Shorthorn cattle (1822) were next to start a herd book.
The first international herd book was established for the American Berkshire pigs in 1876.
It is interesting to realise that these herdbooks were established without any knowledge about genetics.
Breeders had a feeling about inheritance and that was sufficient to invent this selective breeding.
In 1859, Charles Darwin (1809 – 1882) published his book 'On the origin of species', based on his voyage on ‘HMS Beagle’ to Galapagos island
•He also concluded that the individuals that fit best in their environment have the highest chance to survive and reproduce: they are the fittest.
•Still, Darwin did not know about the basic laws of inheritance
It was the monk Gregor Mendel (1865) gave law of genetic inheritance in garden peas.
•He showed that genetic material is inherited from both parents, independently of each other
Most of the animal breeding theory we are still using today, was invented in the first half of the 20-th century.
•R. A. Fisher showed that the diversity of expression of a trait could depend on the involvement of a large number of Mendelian genes.
Fisher, Halden and Wright were the founders of theoretical population genetics.
Thomas Hunt Morgan (1866-1945) connected the chromosome theory of inheritance with Mendel work.
Jay L. Lush (1896 – 1982), who is known as the father of modern animal breeding.
•He advocated that instead of subjective appearance, animal breeding should be based on a combination of quantitative statistics and genetic information.
•He wrote book ‘Animal Breeding Plans’ in 1937
•His student Hazel (1911-1992) developed the selection index theory, method used for decades to determine what weights should be put on the different traits under selection.
C. R. Henderson (1911 – 1989) student of Hazel give method for calculation of Estimated Breeding value
Handerson further estimated the breeding value using BLUP (best linear unbiased prediction).
Introduction to selection and mating system
Introduction to selection and mating system
The population explosion and a poor distribution of food are among the world’s greatest problems today.
Indian Perspective
Area = 3.288 million km²
Population = 1.22 billion (2011)
Population is rapidly growing and resources are scarce,
Therefore, animal breeding is the foundation to meet or support out the requirement.
Animal breeding is a fascinating discipline and is first and fundamental step to a sound animal husbandry,
Animal breeding is the application of genetics and the purpose of animal breeding is not only to genetically improve individual animals but to improve whole animal population i.e. to improve future generations of animals.
The breeder is provided with two important tools: Selection and Mating
Selection decides which animals are going to become parents to produce offspring for the future generation and
Mating decides which males should be mated with which females.
Therefore improvement in desirable traits as well as the ability to transmit these desirable qualities to many progenies can be expected through application of proper selection and systems of mating.
India’s economic progress significantly depends on agriculture and livestock and it will remain so, for many decades.
Realizing the importance of the livestock, the Govt. of India under the Ministry of Agriculture has created an autonomous body namely ICAR (Indian Council of Agricultural Research) to conduct research on various aspects of livestock production and health.
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