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Foundations for Animal Breeding Research¹

U.S. Department of Agriculture, Clay Center, NE 68933

Abstract

The cornerstone for animal breeding research was laid by Mendel in 1865. Principles of population genetics developed by Sewell Wright in the 1920's from experiments with guinea pigs and the extension and further development of these principles to farm animals by Lush have provided most of the foundation for animal breeding research. I shall not reiterate these contributions today because they were reviewed comprehensively by speakers at the Animal Breeding and Genetics Symposium held in honor of Dr. Lush in 1972.

The impact of Wright and Lush on early animal breeding experiments is evident. Many of these experiments involved study of effects of selection for economic traits in intensely or mildly inbred lines. Dickerson (1973) reviewed results of these experiments and concluded that:

1. "Inbreeding is a powerful tool for creating genetic diversity, but it also depresses performance, particularly in components of reproductive fitness including fertility, viability, growth and milk production.
   

¹ Presented at Symposium on Animal Breeding Research Foundation for Tomorrow at 67th Annual Meeting of the American Society of Animal Science, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, July 29, 1975.

² Research Geneticist, U.S. Meat Animal Research Center, Agricultural Research Service

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