Line Breeding??

[Jaydaw_95]

I have heard that you can nor breed brothers and sister together why not? because i dont see a big diff. in breeding brothers and sister together if you can breed moms and sons and daughters to dads. Will something be wrong with the babies or what?

 

[OakRidgeRabbits]

Line breeding is not breeding brothers to sisters.

Line breeding would be like a daughter to father or son to mother. The idea of line breeding is to channel all the "good" genes in a line so that you're able to more consistently produce offspring with those genes.

Brother to sister is just a very, very close cross genetically. Regardless of whether it caused any genetic defects right away, it would definitely solidify any bad traits in the line. So if both rabbits have a weak shoulder, the offspring will have even worse.

 

[elrohwen]

To add to what Julie said, if you breed brother and sister, they could theoretically have almost identical genes, so you would be accentuating problems.

For line breeding, the child bun can only have half of the genes from one parent, so they are less close genetically than siblings.

 

[Jaydaw_95]

ohhhh ok now i understand!! thanks!

 

[Erins Rabbits]

I may have to do some research on this, but as far as I know you can breed for brother/sister litters without issues.

I have a friend who does it frequently, and according to her it helps with consistency. And, she's never had a single problem arise.

 

[pamnock]

Without inbreeding (a form of linebreeding), individual breeds would never have been developed. Inbreeding animals with desired traits increases the probability of consistency.

However, with the good comes the bad. Due to the smaller gene pool, there are less genes available, increasing the likelihood of offspring with undesirable recessive traits being produced. Sort of like winning the lottery (but in a bad way).

Inbreeding can result in the overall decrease in size (fine for peoplebreeding small rabbits, but not desirable for those raising large breeds). Inbred rabbits may show less vigor andsuffer from decreased reproductive performance. To combat inbreeding depression, many breeders keep to separate lines, then cross them, resulting in rabbits with hybrid vigor. (Rabbit Production pg. 303).

The tragic effects of inbreeding in humans have also been well documented. Infant mortality increases, and there is an increase in genetic problems including heart defects. http://www.as.wvu.edu/~kgarbutt/QuantGen/Gen535_2_2004/Inbreeding_Humans.htm

In rabbits, these same problems are also evident after about 2 years of closeinbreeding.

Pam

 

[Silver Star Rabbitry]

I haven't had any issues with brother/sister crosses yet. It is important to keep in mind that brother/sister crosses can bring out the very best and the worst in the litters, so it is very important to cull heavily when breeding rabbits that close.

Emily

Silver Star Rabbitry
Raising and Showing Quality Silver Martens in North Louisiana

http://silverstarsilvermartens.webs.com/
http://silverstarrabbitry.blogspot.com/

[email protected]

 

[Silver Star Rabbitry]

Sorry Pam, I didn't see your post when I posted mine.

Emily

Silver Star Rabbitry
Raising and Showing Quality Silver Martens in North Louisiana

http://silverstarsilvermartens.webs.com/
http://silverstarrabbitry.blogspot.com/

[email protected]

 

[BlueCamasRabbitry]

I have a doe that has excessive inbreeding in her background, including a brother to sister mating, so it can be done. However, I advise against it if you're a new time breeder.

I personally don't like imbred stock, and am trying to outbreed - so much that's been doing, seeing as how every REW Mini in my barn is related somehow except for one. Everytime I buy new stock, I end up finding out later on that they're related! hah. So this means I'm going to have to get stock from out of state, or introduce Chinchilla (which my REWs mask) in order to get in new lines.

Emily

 

[pamnock]

Silver Star Rabbitry wrote:

Sorry Pam, I didn't see your post when I posted mine.

Certainly no need to apologize for your post. You brought up the good point that breeders who closely inbreed have to use strict culling procedures.

 

[foodoo44]

That's definately a bad idea, breothers and sisters have almost identical genes (appart from the fact that the male has an X anda Y chromosome, and the female has 2 X chromosomes). Line breeding, I can see advantages with, but not over too many generations, but brother and sister? It's like the royal family (me coming from england I know a lot about them...NOT!) but they all inter marry and 'breed' so to speak, that why they all look really alike, (just look at the Duke of Edinburgh Prince Phillipand his son Prince Charles). Anyway, after i've gone off on a tangent, it's not very good to do. (sorry if i bored you with the Royals, but it was the only example i could come up with )



Cheers, Kipp

 

[pamnock]

foodoo44 wrote:

That's definately a bad idea, breothers and sisters have almost identical genes (appart from the fact that the male has an X anda Y chromosome, and the female has 2 X chromosomes).
Cheers, Kipp

The genetics shared by siblings range from 0% to 100% (identical twins), averaging 50% genetic similarity. Fraternal twins actually share no more genetic similarity than any other siblings. There aremany examples of siblings who look completely different while others are very similar. We also often note wide variations in litters when breeding rabbits.

Inbreeding over a period of time increases genetic similarity of siblings.

More info on wiki:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inbreeding

 

[pamnock]

This is a very interesting article that related to our discussion . . .

"Darwin Dynasty Cursed by Inbreeding"

"Inbreeding can cause serious health problems, because it increases the chances of successful gene expression for diseases otherwise rare or muted in an individual's pedigree."