Essential
Genetics for the Terrified
by Chris Rutt
Introduction
I travel around
the UK quite a lot giving illustrated talks about
Lovebirds, and over the years have often been
asked to go into detail on the colour
expectations of various pairings. It is certainly
much easier to plan our breeding program if we
have a basic understanding of genetics.
However, many
fanciers admit to having no prior knowledge of
the subject and though many members are very
interested, rarely does time permit more than the
most superficial answer to specific questions,
and some of these members have asked me to
produce some help for them. I have therefore
prepared a short series of articles on the
subject which I hope will help members come to
terms with the subject. Do not be scared of it.
Anyone who is prepared to read the articles
should be able to understand them. I will take
everything in short stages, and all long words
will be thoroughly explained when they first
occur, and if space permits, these explanations
will be repeated occasionally through the series.
Some fundamental questions and answers first:
Q. What is
genetics?
A. The study of how characteristics found in
parents are passed on to later generations.
Q. How will
understanding genetics help me?
A. It will help you to produce particular
mutations in the fewest possible pairings,
and to understand why two identical birds can
produce a large variety of colours in their
chicks and therefore understand the make up
of the parents, and perhaps deduce their
pedigree.
Q. Why are
such long words used?
A. To save space! A so called
"scientific" word (such as
"genetics"), like any other, has a
definition in a dictionary which may be a
sentence or more in length. Providing all
users agree to the definition, use of this
initially unfamiliar word saves a great deal
of time when the particular concept often
comes up in a particular circumstance. Don't
fret about their pronunciation - they sound
like they look.
Q. How
accurate is the science of genetics?
A. For the purposes of the average bird
breeder, very accurate IF WE REMEMBER THAT
ANY FORECAST OF THE OUTCOME OF A PARTICULAR
PAIRING MADE ASSUMES VERY LARGE NUMBERS OF
OFFSPRING, and that there are other processes
at work beyond the BASIC genetics I am
attempting to cover in these articles. If
forced to quantify the accuracy, I would say
that given 50 chicks from a particular pair
the forecast outcome for any ONE particular
characteristic would be around 90% right, and
often more accurate. Do remember though that
we are always dealing with average
probabilities, and frequently with more than
one characteristic.
Q. If I still
don't understand after several readings, what
can I do?
A. WRITE TO ME, and I will prepare a
follow up article dealing with the problems
encountered.
Part1: A Beginning
All rights
reserved © 1997-2000 Chris Rutt
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