Crossbreed

**1. Designer Crossbreeds**:
– Designer crossbreeds have purebred parents from different breeds.
– They are intentionally created to produce specific crossbred animals.
– The animals may have more than two pure breeds in their ancestry.
– Aim to breed animals with hybrid vigor and predictable characteristics.
– Breeding terminology includes F1 crosses, backcrosses, and multi-generational crosses.

**2. Crossbreeds in Specific Animals**:
– Cats, cattle, sheep, llamas, and dogs are examples of animals with crossbreeds.
– Crossbreeding in cattle combines traits from different environments.
– Sheep crossbreeding tailors lamb production.
– Crossbred dogs are distinct from mixed-breed dogs and valued for their vigor and attractiveness.
– Newly developed cat breeds are often crossbreeds of established breeds.

**3. Crossbreeding Benefits**:
– Crossbreeding helps maintain genetic diversity in cattle populations.
– Improves wool quality and meat production in sheep.
– Propagates rare mutations in cat breeds without excessive inbreeding.
– Enhances adaptability and productivity in cattle through crossbreeding systems.

**4. Hybrid Animals**:
– Mule: Cross between female horse and male donkey.
– Liger: Hybrid of male lion and female tiger.
– Yattle: Cross between cow and yak.
– Tigon: Offspring of male tiger and female lion.
– Yakalo: Hybrid of yak and American bison.

**5. Mixed Breeds**:
– Mixed-breed dogs and cats have unknown or documented parentage.
– Mixed-breed dogs are often called mutts or mongrels.
– Mixed-breed cats are referred to as domestic short-haired or long-haired.
– Grade horses have unknown bloodlines.
– Distinction between mixed-breed and crossbreed animals.

Crossbreed (Wikipedia)

A crossbreed is an organism with purebred parents of two different breeds, varieties, or populations. Crossbreeding, sometimes called "designer crossbreeding", is the process of breeding such an organism. While crossbreeding is used to maintain health and viability of organisms, irresponsible crossbreeding can also produce organisms of inferior quality or dilute a purebred gene pool to the point of extinction of a given breed of organism.

A domestic animal of unknown ancestry, where the breed status of only one parent or grandparent is known, may also be called a crossbreed though the term "mixed breed" is technically more accurate. Outcrossing is a type of crossbreeding used within a purebred breed to increase the genetic diversity within the breed, particularly when there is a need to avoid inbreeding.

In animal breeding, crossbreeds are crosses within a single species, while hybrids are crosses between different species. In plant breeding terminology, the term crossbreed is uncommon, and no universal term is used to distinguish hybridization or crossing within a population from those between populations, or even those between species.

Crossbreed (Wiktionary)

English

Alternative forms

  • cross-breed
  • xbreed (abbreviation)

Etymology

From cross- +‎ breed.