BREEDING SYSTEMS

Crossbreeding - A crossbreed or crossbred is an

animal with purebred parents of two different
breeds, varieties, or populations, it is produced by
breeding from two or more varieties or breeds. An
advantage of cross breeding is heterosis - known as
hybrid vigor, is the added performance you get
when mating parents of different breeds
• Out-breeding - Out-breeding or out-crossing is
where very unrelated strains are bred together
• Upgrading – is done to improve the quality of
(livestock) by selective breeding for desired
characteristics using selected parents.
• Inbreeding – is the mating of closely related
animals e.g . between father and daughter or
sister and brother.
• Backcrossing - is a crossing of a hybrid with one of
its parents or an individual genetically similar to
its parent, in order to achieve offspring with a
genetic identity which is closer to that of the
parent. It is used in horticulture, animal breeding
and in production of gene knockout organisms
WHAT ARE THE ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES OF
CROSSBREEDING IN DAIRY CATTLE?

• The major advantage of crossbred dairy cattle is that they exhibit the
strengths of all breeds from which they descend with an added advantage of
heterosis. Heterosis tends to be most important for lowly heritable traits such
as fertility and survival. The performance for a particular crossbred for a trait
will be a combination of the breed merit for that trait of the breeds which
make up the crossbred and the heterosis for that trait which is expressed in
the crossbred. That combination can be higher than the breed merit for that
trait of the superior breed in the crossbred's makeup.
• The major disadvantages are that crossbreds
also have the weaknesses of the breeds from
which they descend and heterosis in initial
crosses declines with any backcrossing to
parental breeds.
• Heterosis, also called hybrid vigour, the increase in such
characteristics as size, growth rate, fertility, and yield of a
hybrid organism over those of its parents. Plant and
animal breeders exploit heterosis by mating two different
pure-bred lines that have certain desirable traits. The first-
generation offspring generally show, in greater measure,
the desired characteristics of both parents. This vigour
may decrease, however, if the hybrids are mated together;
so the parental lines must be maintained and crossed for
each new crop or group desired.