20 Principles for Conservation Breeding
Adapted from an article by Jeff Bragg
- Maintain balance of sires and dams
- Eschew incestuous matings
- Understand and monitor coefficient of inbreeding
- Pay attention to the trend in COI
- Calculate number of unique ancestors
- Know the genetic load but don’t obsess about it
- Use pedigree analysis
- Conserve sire and dam-line diversity
- Practice assortative mating
- Maintain high generation time
- Avoid repeat breedings
- Ensure sibling contribution
- Monitor fitness indicators
- Attempt founder balancing
- Consider outcross matings
- Monitor population growth
- Seek balanced traits
- Avoid unfit breeding stock
- Avoid reproductive technology
- Restrict artificial selection
The full article by Jeffrey Bragg is online here