[Jacob-list] Inbreeding

[Grose]

During the last 12 years of "linebreeding" and hundreds of lambs, we have seen two lambs that showed noticeable deformity. One was an outcross and one was a crossbreed.
In poultry, the modern poultry industry is built on rather extreme inbred lines. Chicks with inbreeding deformities never hatch out of the shell and defective genes are thus eliminated from the gene pool. Jacob sheep were maintained for years in relatively small inbred flocks, therefore there is a chance that something similar to this has already happened to  Jacob sheep.
This does not mean that I think inbreeding is a good thing. We inbreed a lot, but we know that we are going to have to cull mercilessly. Outcrossing tends to cover up bad traits and make a more average animal.

Neal Grose
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