# Standard for breeding distant relatives



## defaced (May 23, 2005)

With regards to conservation and genetic diversity, what's the standard "distance" two related animals should be before they can be safely bred together?


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## Ed (Sep 19, 2004)

It depends on the population and to some extent the animals involved. 

The correct question is the pairing that maximizes the genetic diversity within the population. 

And the answer to that is what is the starting population? In some cases it has been less than ten founders (and as low as six in at least one case). 


For those who have joined TWI, we are looking for help determining some of this information. 

For those interested please see
https://www.treewalkers.org/forum/index ... 201.0.html

Ed


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