Animal breeding is a branch of animal science

Animal science

Animal Science is described as "studying the biology of animals that are under the control of mankind". Historically, the animals studied were farm animals, including livestock and horses, but courses available now look at a far broader area to include companion animals, for example dogs, cats and...

 that addresses the evaluation (using best linear unbiased prediction

Best linear unbiased prediction

In statistics, best linear unbiased prediction is used in linear mixed models for the estimation of random effects. BLUP was derived by Charles Roy Henderson in 1950 but the term "best linear unbiased predictor" seems not to have been used until 1962...

 and other methods) of the genetic value (estimated breeding value, EBV) of domestic livestock. Selecting animals for breeding with superior EBV in growth rate, egg, meat, milk, or wool production, or have other desirable traits has revolutionized agricultural livestock production throughout the world. The scientific theory of animal breeding incorporates population genetics

Population genetics

Population genetics is the study of allele frequency distribution and change under the influence of the four main evolutionary processes: natural selection, genetic drift, mutation and gene flow. It also takes into account the factors of recombination, population subdivision and population...

, quantitative genetics

Quantitative genetics

Quantitative genetics is the study of continuous traits and their underlying mechanisms. It is effectively an extension of simple Mendelian inheritance in that the combined effects of one or more genes and the environments in which they are expressed give rise to continuous distributions of...

, statistics

Statistics

Statistics is the study of the collection, organization, analysis, and interpretation of data. It deals with all aspects of this, including the planning of data collection in terms of the design of surveys and experiments....

, and recently molecular genomics

Genomics

Genomics is a discipline in genetics concerning the study of the genomes of organisms. The field includes intensive efforts to determine the entire DNA sequence of organisms and fine-scale genetic mapping efforts. The field also includes studies of intragenomic phenomena such as heterosis,...

 and is based on the pioneering work of Sewall Wright

Sewall Wright

Sewall Green Wright was an American geneticist known for his influential work on evolutionary theory and also for his work on path analysis. With R. A. Fisher and J.B.S. Haldane, he was a founder of theoretical population genetics. He is the discoverer of the inbreeding coefficient and of...

, Jay Lush

Jay Lush

Jay Laurence Lush was a pioneering animal geneticist who made important contributions to livestock breeding. He is sometimes known as the father of modern scientific animal breeding. Lush received National Medal of Science in 1968 and the Wolf Prize in 1979....

, and Charles Henderson

Charles Roy Henderson

Charles Roy Henderson was a statistician and a pioneer in animal breeding — the application of quantitative methods for the genetic evaluation of domestic livestock. He developed mixed model equations to obtain best linear unbiased predictions of breeding values and, in general, any random effect...

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"Breeding stock" is a term used to describe a group of animals used for purpose of planned breeding.