Why Are Pedigrees Useful?

Pedigrees are not just for dogs, cats and horses. People, bees, plants, livestock, zoo animals, bacteria and other pets have pedigrees. Pedigrees are records of ancestry. A fun use of pedigrees is to be able to brag about famous ancestors, whether the ancestor is Man o'War, Dolly the cloned sheep or Abraham Lincoln. However, pedigrees have very practical purposes as well.

  1. History

    • People recorded pedigrees for centuries. However, the importance of ancestry became very important due to the work of Gregor Johann Mendel. Mendel's work began the study of genetics and inherited traits. Further research on DNA and chromosomes helped make it clear that ancestry directly impacts the future generations in many ways.

    Pets

    • Genetics control or affect most characteristics including coat color, eye color, coat type, length of ears, height and behaviors. A Chihuahua from one ancestry or line may be very different from another line. A pedigree can give information so the breeder can improve the chances of selecting or avoiding certain traits. Pedigrees permit the breeder to find related animals and evaluate their health, looks and performance. Knowledgeable breeders evaluate relationships to avoid too close breeding or to breed closer related individuals in order to develop a more stable type.

    Livestock

    • Pedigrees assist livestock breeders in many ways. According to Texas A&M University Department of Animal Science, factors such as body size, amount of milk produced and weight are part of genetic considerations for breeding. Pedigrees allow breeding to related (inbreeding) or unrelated animals (outbreeding), according to the University of Missouri Extension. Breeding to a closer relationship increases likelihood of sharing common genes. A pedigree helps find animals with characteristics to add or improve a line, such as breeding a line with larger size to a line that matures quickly. According to the University College of Dublin, horse breeders have used pedigrees to select for horse racing performance for centuries.

    Health Issues

    • One of the most important uses for a pedigree is to track genetic disorders. According to the Vet Info website, pedigrees can help a breeder to evaluate the genetic health issues an animal may have. If a dog has ancestors with a genetic disorder, avoiding breeding to a line that carries the disorder helps decrease the likelihood of offspring inheriting it. According to the Orthopedic Foundation for Animals, health registry databases help breeders make decisions by providing health information for individuals in a pedigree. Further, they allow a breeder to find animals related to the individuals in the pedigree and evaluate health issues in those animals. This is helpful when a relative has a disease not found in the animals listed in the single pedigree. Pedigrees help in scientific research such as test breeding to determine if an animal carries a genetic trait, studying mutations in bacteria or even clone cell viability.

    Limitations

    • Pedigrees that contain only names are interesting but of limited value. Queen Victoria as an ancestor is interesting. Tracing the hemophilia gene she carried is medically significant. Pedigrees are valuable when they contain health information, titles and awards, particularly if the pedigree is searchable with a medical database. Advances that will increase the usefulness of pedigrees include genetic testing for disorders and adding genetic information to pedigree databases.