Dean writes:
> I'm not sure what "consequences" I'm supposed to be wary of. 

Reply

>  Certain styles of breeding, namely inbreeding and linebreeding tend to fix and preserve desirable traits by increasing homozygosity of the genes. This means that the gene pairs are the same. Since the gene pairs are the same, the genes for their quality will be passed to the offspring 100% of the time. Outcross breeding increases heterozygosity of the genes. -- Amy Greenwood Burford

> In honey bees (genus Apis), as in other hymenopteran insects, sex is controlled by a mechanism named complementary sex determination (csd). Diploid heterozygotes become females, while haploids develop into males. When the two copies of csd alleles are homozygous, the individual develops into a diploid male, which is eaten by workers. Therefore, honey bees are under great selective pressure to become heterozygous. -- www.plosone.org

> A potential cause of problems is inbreeding and loss of genetic variation that is known to reduce the viability of individuals and is associated with increased occurrences of hereditary disorders governed by autosomal recessive alleles. During recent years increasing conservation genetic focus has been devoted to domestic animal populations. This attention includes both scientific efforts and international and national policy work. Domestic populations are traditionally bred through strong selection. Only a few animals are used in breeding, resulting in considerable loss of genetic variation. Conservation breeding aims at reducing the rate of loss of genetic variation, and this includes reducing selective pressures. -- Veterinary Journal of Behaviour

Complete references available on request

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