The statistical basis of selection in animal husbandry: Part I. Studies on life performance of brood sows: an analysis of variance and covariance of progeny born and reared

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Abstract
Conscious selection is the prime means of keeping the useful qualities of domestic animals at the level they have attained, and of improving them. Valuable economic qualities mostly show the polygenic type of inheritance and therefore continued selection can improve them by sorting out those genes in a herd or breed which are.most desirable for the breeder At the presenttime there is probably not one breed in existence with quantitative characters brought to the homozygous condition. It is the great genetic variation present in breeds which enables selection to be effective in bringing out desirable economic characters.