Genetically speaking, how far apart do a pair of Alpacas need to be before you may breed them together without any worry of genetic depression?
The easiest way of measuring the degree of inbreeding is to decide that an animal above a certain percentage of inbreeding, say 25 to 30 percent, falls into the inbred category; an animal under this percentage would be considered linebred. The 25 percent threshold is suggested because most strains exhibit little or no inbreeding depression at this level. To work out the degree to which an animal is inbred, multiply together the values of the fraction (or decimal) of each parents relationship to the animal being considered. For example, full brother A and sister B are 50 percent related; in fractions, 1/2 related; or in decimals 0.5 related. The progeny of A x B, therefore, will be 1/2 x 1/2 = 1/4 , or 0.5 x 0.5 = 0.25 or 25 percent inbred. Following this approach, the degree of various relationships works out as shown below: Full-brother and full-sister – 1/4 or 25% Sire and granddaughter – 1/8 or 12.5% Half-brother and sister – 1/8 or 12.5% Nephew and aunt – 1/8 or 12.5% Niece and unc
Related Questions
- Have the sire and dam (and puppies, in some instances) been tested for any genetic diseases that are prevalent in that particular breed? Are you shown the health certificates?
- Genetically speaking, how far apart do a pair of Alpacas need to be before you may breed them together without any worry of genetic depression?
- Is There Now a Clear Genetic Basis For Major Depression?
