Inbreeding

Inbreeding is the mating of individuals that have common ancestors in the pedigree. Interest in inbreeding has increased recently because the Artificial Insemination (A.I.) sires available in the major A.I. organizations tend to be from similar bloodlines, and the advent of super ovulation and cloning has increased the potential for sires to have ancestors in common.
Inbreeding can result in the offspring having a genetic abnormality. Many producers are familiar with results of an undesirable effect due to inbreeding dairy cattle. One of the most widely known is mulefoot. Although mulefoot is not common in the Holstein population, it took only one sire carrying the gene to result in many cases showing up in offspring.