A crossbree or crossbred usually refers to an animal with purebred parents of two different breeds, varieties, or populations. Crossbreeding refers to the process of breeding such an animal, often with the intention of creating offspring that share the traits of both parent lineages, or producing an animal with hybrid vigor. While crossbreeding is used in livestock breeding to maintain health and viability of the animals, irresponsible crossbreeding can also produce animals of inferior quality or dilute a purebred gene pool to the point of extinction of a given breed of animal.