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Alpaca Genetics
Glossary of Alpaca Terms
PACO VICUNA:
A crossbred or hybrid vicuna and alpaca.
PACCO:
Quechua word for an Indian priest.
PARTIAL DOMINANCE:
A form of dominance in which the expression of the heterozygote is intermediate
to the expressions of the homozygous genotypes and more closely resembles the
expression of the homozygous dominant genotype.
PATERNAL BREED:
A breed that excels in paternal traits.
PATERNAL TRAIT:
A trait especially important in market offspring. Examples include rate and
efficiency of gain, meat quality, and carcass yield.
PATH METHOD:
A method for calculating inbreeding and relationship co-efficients that
simulates the paths taken by identical genes as they flow from ancestors to
descendants.
PEDIGREE:
A recorded list or genealogy of an alpaca's ancestors. A registered or recorded
known line of descent.
PEDIGREE DATA:
Information on the genotype or performance of ancestors and/or collateral
relatives of an individual.
PEDIGREE RELATIONSHIP:
Relationships between animals due to kinship, such as full-sibs, half-sibs, and
parent-offspring relationships.
PHAEOMELANIN:
See melanin.
PHENOTYPE:
An observed category or measured level of performance for a trait in an
individual.
PHENOTYPIC CORRELATION:
The measure of the strength (consistency, reliability) of the relationship
between performance in one trait and performance in another trait.
PHENOTYPIC SELECTION:
Selection based solely on an individual's phenotype.
PHENOTYPIC SELECTION DIFFERENTIAL:
The difference between the mean performance of those individuals selected to be
parents and the average performance of all potential parents, expressed in
units of the trait.
PHENOTYPIC SELECTION INDEX:
A form of economic selection index used with phenotypic selection. In the
classic form of phenotypic index, the traits in the index are identical to the
traits in the breeding objective.
PIEBALD:
Pinto; in the New Zealand color study, an alpaca with white and black patches.
PINTO:
A two-colored animal characterized by large patches of color.
PLANTEL:
The best of the plantation. Often used to refer to the finest of the herd or
the best breeding stock.
POLLED:
Hornless.
POLYDACTYLISM:
Having many toes, or more than the ordinary complement of toes.
POLYGENES:
Multiple genes that affect the same trait.
POLYGENIC TRAIT:
A trait affected by many genes, no single gene has an over-riding influence.
POPULATION:
A group of intermating individuals. The term can refer to a breed, an entire
species, a single herd or flock, or even a small group of animals within a
herd.
POPULATION GENETICS:
The study of factors affecting gene and genotypic frequencies in a population.
POPULATION MEAN:
The average phenotypic value of all individuals in population.
POPULATION MEASURE:
Any measure applied to a population as opposed to an individual.
POSITIVE ASSORTATIVE MATING:
The mating of similar individuals.
PREPOTENCY:
The ability of an individual to produce progeny whose performance is especially
like its own and/or is especially uniform.
PRODUCING ABILITY:
The performance potential of an individual for a repeated trait.
PROGENY DATA:
Information on the genotype or performance of descendants of an individual.
PROGENY DIFFERENCE:
Also transmitting ability. Half an individual's breeding value. The expected
difference between the mean performance of the individual's progeny and the
mean performance of all progeny (assuming randomly chosen mates).
PROGENY TEST:
A test used to help predict an individual's breeding values involving multiple
matings of that individual and evaluation of its offspring.
PUNA:
The high barren tundra zone of the Andes mountains.
PUNNETT SQUARE:
A two-dimensional grid used to determine the possible zygotes obtainable from a
mating.
PUREBLOOD:
An animal of unmixed ancestry; bred from members of a recognized breed or
strain without a mixture of other blood over many generations.
PUREBRED:
Wholly of one breed or line (as opposed to crossbred).
PUREBREEDING:
Also straightbreeding. The mating of purebreds of the same breed.
QIEILU:
Quechua word for the color yellow.
QUALITATIVE TRAIT:
A trait in which phenotypes are expressed in categories.
QUANTITATIVE TRAIT:
A trait in which phenotypes show continuous (numerical) expression.
QUECHUA:
A group of Indian peoples of Central Peru. Original founders of the Incan
civilization. Today, the Quechuan people are the primary shepherds of alpaca in
the Altiplano.
QUINTAL:
Hundred weight (metric system).