2 ms·
Genetic diversity is overrated when you talk about stock animal survival. Typically it's only a problem if you can't breed enough to cull unhealthy animals. It
by foxyv 3y ago
Genetic diversity is overrated when you talk about stock animal survival. Typically it's only a problem if you can't breed enough to cull unhealthy animals. It just means that your infant mortality rate is a little higher, which can be offset by supplemented nutrition.
As the population grows larger you will see an increase in diversity due to the quirks of sexual reproduction. Also, we can just keep creating new lines of individuals and mixing them into the herd. A single bull would be able to mate with a ton of cows giving you maximum bang for your DNA buck.
The hardest part would be creating a healthy animal in the first place. Once you can do that, the rest is almost trivial in comparison. After that you can even do in-vitro testing of zygotes to select healthy stock. Especially considering how valuable they would be.