Re: [GSAS-Member]Inbreeding

[John Ruhland <john@drruhland.com>]

Steev,
Good point about the need to make evidence-based statements.

As an animal lover, I'm very uncomfortable with Ahmer's cavalier 
statement about
"weeding out" animals. Maybe it's just me, but it evokes images of 
eugenics. Of course,
I go out of of my way to let even weeds grow in my garden. Then again, 
I do weed out
grass. I could not cull any fish.

Maybe I'll send you more comments off-list.

By the way, if someone sent a 9 mb article to the listserve, I cannot 
accept anything that
large. Could you re-send, minus any photos, or better yet, reducing the 
size of the photos?

Thank you,
John




On Mar 29, 2005, at 7:05 PM, steev ward wrote:

John Ruhland wrote:
"In researching some fish I recently got, the literature clearly states 
that
this inbreeding has caused certain fish lines to be unhealthy."

John-

The expression that many lines of fish are unhealthy due to inbreeding 
is
mostly just "something we say" in the fish hobby. As far as I know 
there has
never been any good evidence of such. Be careful when you refer to such
information as coming from "the literature" (especially if this 
information
comes from a fish magazine or from the web) because that implies that 
there
is some kind of standard for accuracy, which there probably is not. 
Just as
with human health everyone is free to make whatever statement they want,
regardless of truth. In both cases there are a lot of things that we 
state
as if they were true, when really there is no good evidence. If it 
seems to
make sense then we repeat it. If enough people repeat it we accept it. 
After
we have accepted it for a long time it becomes common knowledge. Then 
if you
write it down or put it on the web it becomes fact.

I am reminded of an article I read a few years ago called "Inbreeding 
is a
Good Thing."  By Brian Ahmer, Ph.D.  I believe it may have been 
published in
Flare, the publication of the International Betta Congress.
The genetic principles in question are very interesting. They involve 
LOSING
either beneficial traits or deleterious ones. The GAINING of a 
detrimental
gene is not all that much of a threat. The other point, that inbreeding
produces more fish with more than one copy of a detrimental gene, is
something that Mr. Ahmer sees as a GOOD thing, because such fish can be
weeded out.

Steev

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Dr. John F. Ruhland
The Natural Health Medical Clinic
4002 - 25th Avenue S, Seattle, WA 98108
206-723-4891
www.drruhland.com
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