Inbreeding depression in livestock species: review and meta-analysis

Inbreeding, by virtue of its consequence on traits of interest, is a topic of major interest for geneticists and animal breeders. Based on meta-analysis conducted on 57 studies and seven livestock species considering a wide variety of selected traits, it was estimated that inbreeding depression corresponds to on average a decrease of 0.137 percent of the mean of a trait per 1 percent of inbreeding. The decrease was larger for production traits (reduction of 0.351%) than for other trait categories. For populations raised as purebreds, inbreeding depression may impact the economic income of breeders. There is a need for studies assessing the existence of an inbreeding purge phenomenon as well as the impact of inbreeding on adaptation capacities of livestock species. Promises brought by the development of dense genotyping as well as functional genomics will increase the capacities to improve our understanding and management of the phenomenon.