Effects of inbreeding in the budgerigar Melopsittacus undulatus (Aves: Psittacidae)

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Abstract
Two breeding programmes carried out by budgerigar breeders have been analysed in order to detect effects of inbreeding on fitness characters. The results from the two programmes are conflicting: inbreeding has no effect on clutch sizes and a deleterious effect on fledging success in one stock, whilst in the other stock, inbreeding either did not affect, or significantly increased, values for clutch size, egg fertility and hatchability, and fledging success. Two possible interpretations of this heterogeneity are (1) that the early history of the particular genotypes in the second stock led to tolerance of inbreeding or (2) that the result from the first stock is a consequence of inbreeding a trait modified by directional selection during domestication. These possibilities can be distinguished by further observations. In general, the use of results from even recently domesticated animals to estimate the impact of inbreeding in undomesticated populations is unwise. The existence of significant information in amateur breeders' records is of importance in broadening our understanding of these problems.

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