Animal Husbandry

Strategies for enhancement in food production animal husbandry, it is the branch of agriculture which deals with the systematic practice of breeding and raising livestock by applying scientific principles. It includes care and breeding of livestock like buffaloes, cows, pigs, horses, cattle, sheep, camels, goats, bees, silkworms, insects, etc. along with poultry farming and fisheries. It is to be noted that the term livestock refers to domesticated animals of different breeds kept in agricultural land for the benefit of human beings. Whereas fisheries include the rearing of fish and other aquatic animals. Man raises animals for various products like milk, eggs, meat, wool, silk, honey, etc. The application of new technologies is essential to improve quality and productivity.

Animal breeding

One important aspect of animal husbandry is animal breeding. Here very good quality animals are bred together with selected breeds to improve the quality of future breeds.

Objectives:

The chief objectives of animal breeding are:

• Increased quality and quantity of yields like milk, eggs, meat, and wool.
• The higher growth rate of farm animals.
• Better assimilation efficiency of reared animals.
• Strong resistance to various diseases.
• A longer productive life.
• Higher acceptable reproductive rate.

Types of animal breeding

Animal breeding is broadly classified into two types, inbreeding and outbreeding.

Inbreeding

The first breed of crossbreed hybrid will have recessive allele in their genome. So, in order to pure hybrid with no recessive alleles in it, inbreeding is performed. In inbreeding very closely related animals usually brothers, cousins, etc. are mated with each other. In every generation, the animals that express recessive or harmful character are eliminated and the remaining are bred again. After repeated inbreeding and selective selection pure lines of hybrid recessive characters are obtained. However, there is a problem with inbreeding. After a few generations, when the pure breeds are repeatedly inbred, some of the dominant characters lose their effectiveness, this is also called inbreeding depression. To overcome this inbreeding depression outcrossing is performed.

Out-breeding

 Outbreeding is a technique in which breeding is done between unrelated animals. Here the term and unrelated refers to the animals of either the same breed having different ancestors or animals of different breeds of different species. Outbreeding is generally carried out in three ways; out-crossing cross-breeding and interspecific hybridization

Out-crossing: In this method of breeding, the mating of animals is allowed within the same breed. Here the animals are chosen in such a way that both the animals do not have common ancestry for at least six generations. By doing so, inbreeding depression can be removed. Outcrossing infuses vigor and vitality in the offspring. Due to this, the outcrossing of pure animals is preferred over impure animals.

Crossbreeding: Cross-breeding of two animals of different breeds but of the same species are mated together. Both animals will play a dominant role in the offspring. Cross-breeding is done to develop new superior breeds and improve the quality of indigenous breeds. The hybrids thus obtained have more commercial value. For example, when in the genus cow breed Tharparker having properties like disease resistance and low milk yield is mated with an exotic breed Halston having properties like low resistance and very high milk yield. A special hybrid was formed card Karen fries. This cow was both disease-resistant and had high milk yielding capacity. In the first generation, there will still be some recessive traits. So, the hybrid is subjected to inbreeding and selection to develop a stable hybrid.

For crossbreeding, several factors are considered before selecting cattle. Some of these are as follows:

Quality of a breed and its yield value.

Diet requirement of the breed.

The ratio of yield to diet.

Reproductive maturity of the breed.

Duration of the reproductive period.

Lactation.

mammary system

Size of udder

Nature of the Breed

Disease resistance

Acclimatization

Vigor and vitality

Capacity to work

Crossbreeding is also done to sheep and to improve poultry breeds. Here the best egg layers and broilers are allowed to crossbreed by a method card pen mating. In this method one male is kept with 10 to 15 females in a room is called pens and allowed to mate.

Inter-specific hybridization: It involves the mating of males and females of two different species. The offspring has desired characters of both species. For example, when a male donkey is mated with a female horse, the offspring is called a mule. Mule can survive in harsh environments and are capable of doing hard labor. Due to this, they are considered as good beasts of burden. Here are a few examples of interspecific hybridization.

There is one big problem with the interspecific hybridization, that is the hybrids are sterile. However, due to their high economic benefits, they were bred regularly.