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( Selective breeding)
Selective breeding in domesticated animals is the process of a breeder developing a cultivated breed over time, and selecting qualities within individuals of the breed that will be best to pass on to the next generation. Breeding techniques such as inbreeding, linebreeding and outcrossing are utilized by breeders in the maintenance and improvement of their chosen breeds. "Breeding stock" is a term used to describe a group of animals used for purpose of planned breeding. When an individual is looking to breed animals, he or she is looking for certain valuable traits in purebred stock for a certain purpose, or may intend to use some type of crossbreeding to produce a new type of stock with different, and presumably superior abilities in a given area of endeavor. For example, to breed chickens, a typical breeder intends to receive eggs, meat, and new, young birds for further reproduction. Thus the breeder has to study different breeds and types of chickens and analyze what can be expected from a certain set of characteristics before he or she starts breeding them. Accordingly, when purchasing initial breeding stock, the breeder seeks a group of birds that will most closely fit the purpose intended. Mating animals of the same breed for maintaining such breed is referred to as purebred breeding. Opposite to the practice of mating animals of different breeds, purebred breeding aims to establish and maintain stable traits, that animals will pass to the next generation. By "breeding the best to the best," employing a certain degree of inbreeding, considerable culling, and selection for "superior" qualities, one could develop a bloodline or "breed" superior in certain respects to the original base stock.
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