Idle curiosity - DNA testing

[arizonahoney]

Is there any test you can do to determine the breeding of a horse? I don't intend to breed from him (cos he's a gelding ) but would love to have an idea of his genetic make-up... His passport is one of those helpful ones where the breed is specified simply as 'pony'.

 

[JFTDWS]

I imagine so... Some horse breeds do genetic testing, and it's certainly possible to identify the breed of an unknown dog from DNA. It may not be very informative or exciting though.

 

[Ladylina83]

Mine is DNA tested withthe breed society but I needed hair from Mother and his to - I'm not sure you can do it with out at least one parents DNA

 

[JFTDWS]

Mine is DNA tested withthe breed society but I needed hair from Mother and his to - I'm not sure you can do it with out at least one parents DNA

Really? I find that unlikely - it's just genetic anaysis - looking for specific markers associated with certain breeds - same as we do with people and dogs etc - there's no reason you'd need parental DNA that I can think of...


Unless you were trying prove "membership" of a certain breed, in which case I can see why they might want some parental DNA - to isolate what comes from the dam and what from the (unknown / unproven?) stallion...

 

[Jesstickle]

JFTD, I agree it's possible. But... I don't think many people are set up to do it. Most genetic testing of horses carried out is to confirm parentage and so all the primers will be geared round that. And obviously you'd know the breed and would need parental DNA to compare to ( although I think a lot of stud books keep the sequences as I didn't need hair from Nitty to confirm her sire = they must already have a record right?) I would imagine you'd have to do quite a decent spread of markers to confirm with any certainty the breed, plus it would be quite a mess as 'pony' probably means a bit of this and a bit of that, and I don't know how commercially available that kind of service is. Most of what is done looks at a very limited number of markers from one breed.

Perhaps we should go into business. I've never been much good at genome analysis though. If it isn't clear cut I struggle to reach conclusions! A heinz 57 would leave me scratching my head for days trying to decide what it was most likely to be!

 

[Switchthehorse]

Like LadyLina I had my horse DNA tested through the breed society but it was to prove she was by a specific stallion - I just needed a sample of her tail.

It did work out quite expensive as had to get vet to take an 'approved' tail sample, then there was the postage, the cost of the test itself and postage of results, it took quite a long time as well (over 4 weeks) but not sure if that was just the society she is registered with.

I would say just doing a general test i.e. not to 'prove' anything but to find out a possible match would probably be a waste of money - unless you know that your horse is likely to have specific blood lines that the society holds records against I would say you would be pretty lucky to find a match.. so could be money wasted...