Elements Of Animal Genetics

Nowadays, breeding of high productive farm animals, like cattle, pigs and poultry is in the hands of multinational companies which invest a lot of money in state of the art breeding programs. The breeding of sheep, goats, horses and companion animals, e.g. the dog are based on individual breeders collaborating in the setting of a herd book or a breeder’s association. Animal breeding is aiming at the improvement of animals by changing their genetic abilities for important traits. These traits are