SITUATION OF INBREEDING IN A RETINTO POPULATION

SUMMARY The degree of inbreeding was studied for a subpopulation of the beef cattle breed Retintofrom the Cadiz Province in Andalusia (Spain). The pedigree information from 492 female and 25 male breeding animals was analyzed. On the basis of the available information, only the current inbreeding, that is the inbreeding with consideration of three ancestral generations, could be calculated. While close inbreeding is purposely avoided with the bulls, it is of great importance in cows. The average coefficient of inbreeding for cows born inthe years 1982 to 1987 was o 2.35 /;o, although in the great-grandparent generation only 55% of the ancestors were known. Inbreeding was discovered in 17.7% of the cows; 5.8%of the cows had an inbreeding coefficient of 25%. The rate of inbreeding per generation is very high in comparison with other beef cattle breeds and above all in comparison with dual purpose cattle. Because of the manner in which the bulls are used, also considerablenon-current inbreeding has to be expected.