AGB 211: Livestock and Poultry Breeding (2+1)

ARTIFICIAL SELECTION

It is the selection practised by man. This can also be defined as the efforts of man to increase the frequency of desirable genes or combination of genes in his herd or flock by locating or saving those individuals with superior performance or that have the ability to produce superior performing offspring when mated with individuals from other lines or breeds. This can be classified as:

• automatic selection,
• deliberate selection and
• replacement selection and culling. Replacement selection decides which animals will become parents for the first time i.e., new animals to replace parents that have been culled. These new animals are called replacements.