Inbreeding depression in anthropometric traits among Telaga boys of Kharagpur, West Bengal, India.

Inbreeding depression in phenotypic variations as well as reproductive capacity was reported in animals. Depression of physical measurements in human beings especially among infants and adults due to inbreeding has also been reported all over the world. The present study is an attempt to examine the nature of inbreeding effect on growing children at each yearly age with increase of inbreeding intensity in a local endogamous population based on pedigree data. In general, mean values of measurements appear to be smaller in higher levels of inbreeding from that of lower levels of inbreeding in each yearly age. These differences are even more marked when grouped as low and high inbreeding level. The percent of inbreeding depression tends to be larger in post adolescent boys than in younger children.