From: David Payne
Sent: 10 January 2009 09:07
To:
Wendy;
Andrew Winfrow; Brigid Newlands; Sheila Rankin
Cc: Carole Lister; Chris Hazell; David Hall; John Ward;
Nikki Farley; Paul Bradley; Philip Prince; Steve Foran
Subject: CANINE DNA TESTING and DNA profiling LINKING
with DNA parentage testing
To: The GSD
Breed Council & BAGSD & The GSD League (The GSD-UK
Partnership)
I am very
interested in a DNA Parentage Testing System being
introduced in the UK for German Shepherd Dogs. I would also
wish this to be linked with an Identification System of a
Tattoo/Microchip requirement.
I contacted the
Animal Health Trust by telephone and discussed at length
what they currently offer, following which I wrote my
email below to the persons I was advised could provide
the answers to my consequential questions.
I received a reply
from Nigel Holmes (below) and his reply offers considerable
potential for the introduction of a DNA Parentage Testing
System within the United Kingdom for our breed.
I would NOT hold my
breath waiting for the Kennel Club to facilitate this,
however with our new and potentially very promising GSD-UK
Partnership being inaugurated recently, I felt this issue
would be perfect for them to facilitate for our breed here
in the UK. This would clearly demonstrate that the GSD-UK
Partnership are proactive in introducing valuable Systems
into the UK for our breed, in line with their individual
Organisations history in relation to The Hip Scheme, The
Tattoo Scheme and Haemophilia testing scheme.
I hope the GSD-UK
Partnership will pursue this initiative with some vigour and
determination, Our breed needs such an approach with its
attendant publicity, it will certainly generate enthusiasm
and support for your current dealings with The Kennel Club.
I have emailed
Reinhardt Meyer SV National Breed Warden, separately
regarding compatibility of the AHT and SV DNA Parentage
Tests. I can forward you a copy of my email if you wish.
Best regards
David Payne
VIDEX GSD
From:
NIGEL HOLMES (Animal
Health Trust (AHT)
Sent:
09 January 2009 15:00
To: David Payne; MARK VAUDIN
Subject: RE: CANINE DNA TESTING - LINK ON MY WEBSITE?
and DNA profiling LINKING with DNA parentage testing
Dear David,
Thank you for your e-mail
Please do go ahead and put a link to our web-site.
We do offer profiling and parentage. although the two
schemes are not identical.
Our parentage
service is currently run on a confidential basis to the
client - however, if GSD clubs wanted us to set up a
system where results could be released to the club or clubs
then we could certainly do that. it would be made clear on
the form that results would be sent on a regular basis to a
third party and clients would then sign to confirm that they
had read and agreed with those terms. Any breeder not
signing could not, therefore, submit a sample for that
profiling/parentage service.
The current DNA
profiling service is a separate scheme from our parentage
scheme - the profiling scheme is in fact run jointly with
the Kennel Club whereas the parentage scheme is not.
I am
not sure why our results would not be compatible with those
of other laboratories, such as those in the SV Germany
scheme that you quote. However, the current situation for
DNA profiling of dogs is not as straightforward as it could
be and there are several standards in operation. We use a
standard from the International Society of Animal Genetics (ISAG)
which is supported by a two year international comparison
test run by that organisation - this enables us (and other
laboratories around the world) to standardise the profiles
which we hold on our databases and ensures that the profiles
from one laboratory are compatible with those from other
laboratories. We can therefore exchange profiles with other
laboratories and use those profiles, for example for
verifying parentage. The original ISAG standard (ISAG2004)
has now been replaced by another standard ISAG2006. We can
do profiles to either standard, although our joint AHT/KC
Profiling Scheme is run on ISAG2004. We do however do
parentage analysis to ISAG2006. I would need to know a
little more about the technical details of the SV Germany
scheme to be able to confirm whether their profiles are
compatible with either of these ISAG standards - although
most European testing labs do use the ISAG standards.
I
hope that answers your questions,
Regards,
Nigel Holmes (AHT)
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