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

SELECTION FOR GENERAL COMBINING ABILITY 

• For measuring the general combining ability, top crossing is followed. In top crossing, individuals from the inbred lines to be tested are crossed with individuals from the base population. The mean value of the progeny measures the general combining ability of the line because the gametes of individuals from the base population are genetically equivalent to the gametes of a random set of inbred lines derived without selection from the base population. This method is for comparing the general combining abilities of different lines and to choose the lines most likely to yield the best cross among all the crosses that would be made between the available lines.