Genetic Diversity in New Breeds

[Ziekenzie]

Hello everyone! I'm interested in learning more about the creation of new breeds. From what I understand so far, it is necessary for a breed to breed true to be considered a proper breed. I was wondering if anyone could tell me how genetic diversity would be introduced in the creation of a new breed. I'd assume there would be a decent amount of linebreeding and any outbreeding could harm the purity of the line.

Thank you in advance!

 

[FeatheredFriends&Horses2]

Hi, and welcome to BYC! Chicken breeds are kind of interesting because they play by somewhat different rules than breeds in other animals. There aren't really chicken registries or pedigrees like there are for dogs or horses. In fact, in the show world, you can show a chicken that you know is a "mixed up mutt" as a breed if it meets the APA's breed standards. So you don't have to be quite as particular as with some animals when breeding chickens either to meet old breed standards or create new breeds, since you don't have to worry about parentage. There is still a good deal of linebreeding, but by carefully and selectively introducing new birds that have traits that you're looking for, you have the potential to decrease the likelihood of genetic issues that arise from overbreeding, while maintaining (or even improving) desired breed characteristics. So yes, a lot of linebreeding, however outbreeding won't necessarily harm the purity of the line, since really, you're dealing with expressivity of traits rather than purity of lineage.

 

[Ziekenzie]

Hi, and welcome to BYC! Chicken breeds are kind of interesting because they play by somewhat different rules than breeds in other animals. There aren't really chicken registries or pedigrees like there are for dogs or horses. In fact, in the show world, you can show a chicken that you know is a "mixed up mutt" as a breed if it meets the APA's breed standards. So you don't have to be quite as particular as with some animals when breeding chickens either to meet old breed standards or create new breeds, since you don't have to worry about parentage. There is still a good deal of linebreeding, but by carefully and selectively introducing new birds that have traits that you're looking for, you have the potential to decrease the likelihood of genetic issues that arise from overbreeding, while maintaining (or even improving) desired breed characteristics. So yes, a lot of linebreeding, however outbreeding won't necessarily harm the purity of the line, since really, you're dealing with expressivity of traits rather than purity of lineage.

Thank you! This really answered the majority of the questions I had! I do want to ask how many birds one would need to get started with a new breed, and if there are any threads or websites you could direct me to.

 

[Wanderers tales]

Hello everyone! I'm interested in learning more about the creation of new breeds. From what I understand so far, it is necessary for a breed to breed true to be considered a proper breed. I was wondering if anyone could tell me how genetic diversity would be introduced in the creation of a new breed. I'd assume there would be a decent amount of linebreeding and any outbreeding could harm the purity of the line.

Thank you in advance!

Consider this your lucky day. When it comes to inventing a new breed. There are two methods and each with 2 steps.
Method 1. Hybridisation or cross breeding.
Method 2. Advanced and careful selective breeding from 1 breed.

Step one: create the new breed.
Step two: perfect your new breed “make sure it’s not a constantly suffering mutant like most purebred silkies”.


Now three majors rules in breed invention aren’t something written anywhere it’s basically common sense when you talk about an actual breed invention which are
1. Your new breed must be something new unique and nothing like it. For instance it should have teeth or fingers on the wings or two tails 4 wings or raptor beak generally anything that hasn’t already been made before “typically coloration doesn’t count unless it’s completely new and has never been seen in any other known breed”.
2. You must have at least 20 identical specimens half males and half females. Otherwise you’re just some random lucky guy who found a rare mutant which will die in a couple of years and that will be the end of it. So the population must be big enough to last.
3. You must be the first to invent it. If by chance you happened to produce something starting from now and finishing in 2024 only to realise someone els already made something identical before you and finished it by 2023 doesn’t gives you any rights to claim to have invented it. Because we don’t know if you’re saying the truth, what we would know is that you’d be trying to claim you’ve made something before someone els but just so happened to take a whole year to publish it after him ? Believe it or not this sort of thing happens a lot in my country and that’s one of the reasons for why I publish my work before it’s even fully completed yet. I’ve done some on this website and others on other websites.

 

[blklangshandude]

Maybe my logic is simplistic but follow my thought pattern. When genetic diversity is lacking, can’t you just take one chicken of that breed, breed it to any other breed or mutt, then breed that offspring back to its parent, then the next generation to its grandparent and finally the next generation to its great grandparent? Then Shazam. You have a brand new line of that breed that isn’t closely related to any other chicken of that breed. Closest relation would be third cousins by that fourth generation.

Will this work? You will have a line of chickens that are 7/8 ths of that one original chicken. You could probably go another generation further if the original chicken lives long enough and remains fertile .

 

[Wanderers tales]

Maybe my logic is simplistic but follow my thought pattern. When genetic diversity is lacking, can’t you just take one chicken of that breed, breed it to any other breed or mutt, then breed that offspring back to its parent, then the next generation to its grandparent and finally the next generation to its great grandparent? Then Shazam. You have a brand new line of that breed that isn’t closely related to any other chicken of that breed. Closest relation would be third cousins by that fourth generation.

Will this work? You will have a line of chickens that are 7/8 ths of that one original chicken. You could probably go another generation further if the original chicken lives long enough and remains fertile .

Well yes that’s basically how perfecting works. Though I recommend using a hardy breed as a genetic stabiliser for the final product before selling any. Use a red jungle fowl or a common feral or something. It’ll delay your work by another year or so but the results will guarantee a perfected new breed.

 

[blklangshandude]

Well yes that’s basically how perfecting works. Though I recommend using a hardy breed as a genetic stabiliser for the final product before selling any. Use a red jungle fowl or a common feral or something. It’ll delay your work by another year or so but the results will guarantee a perfected new breed.

I think he was referencing a semi emergency situation for a breed that is on the edge of extinction. However if I was involved in creating a fresh line of a rare breed I would use a White Leghorn for a project like this.

 

[Wanderers tales]

I think he was referencing a semi emergency situation for a breed that is on the edge of extinction. However if I was involved in creating a fresh line of a rare breed I would use a White Leghorn for a project like this.

Leghorns are pretty hardy... and horny too. Great choice if your breed has fertility issues. I use them to perfect my shamo breeds.