 Livestock have been domesticated by man for

around 12000-14000 years, with the dog being

the first animal followed by sheep, goats, cattle
and others.

 The selection of animals into different forms has

been practiced over a long period of time.

 Many thousands years ago, people were using

applied genetics in the form of plant and animal
breeding.
 Evolution: Gradual changes which species undergo
over time as a result of natural selection
 Charles Darwin: origin of species
 Time Line: Wild to Domestication
 (Evolution) = Types Breeds Composites
Transgenic & MAS
 Breed: a group of animals of common origin that
possess certain distinguishable characteristics that
make them different than other members of the
species.

 Animal Breeding: encompasses Molecular,
quantitative, and population genetics
 The application of the principles of genetics

and statistics for improving performance of

farm animals
 The practical application of genetic analysis

for development of lines/breeds of

domestic animals suited to human
purposes/uses.

 The 18th century English farmer Robert Bakewell is
regarded as the father of modern animal breeding in
laying foundations of pure animal breeds of (Shire horse,
Longhorn cattle and Leicester sheep breed).
 Robert Bakewell (1725 – 1795) did his animal breeding
work in 1760 at Dishley, Leicestershire, England on horse,
cattle and sheep.
 He succeeded to develop pure breeds because of:
 Then, Bakewell aimed to choice early maturity, shorter
legs, a minimum bone, wide hips, a barrel shaped body, a
thinner hide and plenty of fat.
 Many others followed Bakewell’s method to develop pure
breeds in many countries. Formation of pure breed
associations took place during 1870 – 1900 and registry
books for each breed were developed.
 William Bateson working on chickens showed the applicability
of Mendelian principles on animals.
 Hardy and Weinberg contributed population genetics. Other
scientists also have advanced our understanding of
qualitative and statistical nature of animal breeding. (E.g.
biometricians like Karl Pearson, Ronald Fisher etc.)
 Wright Sewall gave the details of different type of mating
systems during 1918 – 1921.
 Lush, Jay American scientist gave the details of heritability
estimation and its effect on selection of animals in 1945. He
developed a breeder’s equation; i.e R= h2S. Lush applied
Mendel's work directly to animal breeding.
 In 1997, Ian Wilmut
 Created the first true clone, the Dorset

ewe, Dolly
 Dolly, 1st animal to be cloned from an adult

somatic cell, using the process of nuclear

transfer at Roslin Institute, Scotland
1. It is applied science that is important to
increase the progeny of best animal w/c fits
requirement of both producer and consumer
2. It is tool for genetic improvement in
performance of the livestock over generations
Increase yield by selecting the best parents: to improve the
productivity of progeny interms of milk, egg, wool, meat,
etc.
Identify
and avoid animals with bad genes/genetic defects
Produce disease tolerant animal: such as disease-resistant

strains of chickens and heat resistant breeds of cattle using

d/t breeding technologies
 The objective of animal improvement/breeding
should be to increase the efficiency of
production.
 In economic terms, the output to be obtained
from the improvement should exceed the cost
of input.
 The outputs could be production of milk, meat,
egg, wool, etc
 The inputs include feed, land, capital, labor,
veterinary services, etc. it may not be easy to
estimate the cost of inputs accurately but it is
important to recognize that they exist.
There are many ways of changing the productivity
of livestock. These include:
Improved feeding

Management (including the physical environment)

Health care

Animal breeding (genetic improvement)-selection

and crossbreeding etc….

 Genetic improvement is always accompanied with management
(environment) because almost 70% of the genetic improvement is
possible through only management improvement. So, we need to
consider the resource we have before going for genetic
improvement.
 The cost of improvement through better environment is very high
and continuous throughout the entire improvement program.
Genetic improvement can be made through:
 Substituting one breed for another ( breed replacement)
 Selection
 Mating systems
 Cross breeding
 Inbreeding
 Genetic Engineering
 Marker assisted selection, MAS
 Genome selection, DNA based
 Uses of Biotechnology for multiplying the best genotype (AI, ETT,
Cloning etc.)
 A trait is any observable or measurable
characteristic of an animal.
Qualitative traits Quantitative traits
 Phenotypic expressions of traits are  phenotypic expressions of traits are measurable
observable (metric)
 show variation which fall into a few  show all mode of variation ranges from small to
clearly defined classes (suggest large (suggest continuous variation)
discontinuous variation)  are determined by a large number of genes(QTL)
 are under the control of one or a few which have relatively small individual effects,
pairs of genes, whose final expression additive effect(GA)
is not greatly influenced by  are affected in their expression to a
environment considerable extent by environment
examples:  includes most of the economic traits in domestic
- presence or absence of horn in cattle, animals
- black or red coat color, examples:
- blood types etc. - Milk production, - egg yield, - egg size, - wool
yield, - growth rate, etc.
 Nature of Variation
Variation - is the measurable differences in individuals for a particular
character.
 - is the raw material which the breeder has available for herd/flock

improvement
 - is at once the hope and despair of the breeder:

 Nature of variation could be continuous or discontinuous.

 What is their difference?

 Why traits have continuous phenotypes

 = The genetic factors are due to

 Recombination effect during gamete formation and fertilizations

 Gametes combine at random during fertilization

 random sample of Genes combine at random during meiosis

 Numerous genes affect the expression of a trait (polygenic effect)

 Gene or chromosomal Mutation