What issues can selective breeding cause?

Hi Brian!

The main problem with selective breeding is that the future offspring are all very similar to each other genetically. This means that the gene pool is smaller when breeding occurs. One problem that a small gene pool causes is that it can make a population more susceptible to diseases or mutations. This could be because the characteristics that have been selected as desirable are also associated with genes that can cause harmful mutations, or it could be because an immunity from a disease has been bred out of the population accidentally.

A common example of this is dog breeding. A lot of people want their dogs to have certain characteristics, so over time these dogs have been bred to exhibit these features. You can read about some negative impacts by clicking here.

Hope this helps!

Maia