Question

Describe different methods of animal breeding and mention their significance.

Answer 1

The different methods of animal breeding include:

1. Inbreeding and 2. Outbreeding

When breeding takes place between animals of the same breed for more than 4-5 generations, its often referred to as inbreeding.

Inbreeding helps to maintain a pure line of any animal. It helps to accumulate superior genes and eliminate the less desired genes. But continued inbreeding leads to a decrease in productivity and quality and is termed as inbreeding depression.

When breeding takes place between unrelated individuals of the same breed (cross-breeding) or between different breeds (inter-specific hybridization) is often referred to as outbreeding.

Outbreeding is considered as the best strategy of animal breeding to increase the productivity and quality of animals.