Monday, April 20, 2015

The Importance Of DNA Testing For Horses

By Stella Gay


Equines are great animals. When trained, they can become very beneficial aid in human activities like farming and sports. They are very athletic, stealthy, and strong. But when you want to have one or start operating your own animal farm, you will need to register every breed you have.

Pretty sure, you are already familiar with genetic technology. This has been really popular in human forensics. But the most widely used, especially for profiling and identification, is DNA testing for horses. They do this to identify the color coatings of the equine as well as disease inheritance. This will enable them to know where they got the color or which side they got the disease and eventually, the possible cures.

The verification of the genotype of foals or baby horses is needed so that their parentage can be traced accurately. The methods are very scientific and only the scientists can demonstrate the techniques used here to ensure accuracy and reliability of the tests. An important note in this method is the identification of color patterns and coatings of the equines as well as the possibilities of diseases or genetic disorders.

The diseases acquired from the parent genes will also be identified in this scientific intervention. The cells in the hair follicles has all the genetic information needed like the chromosomes and the sequences of the genes. These genetic details are isolated from the hair sample and then tested in the laboratory. The results are always ninety nine point ninety percent accurate.

This is required by the International Society of Animal Genetics. Wherever the equines will be sent anywhere in the world, the same results should be taken along with them to make sure they are registered. Hence, there is no need to retest their genetic parentage in another place.

Sometimes, the results can be really unpredictable. There are cases when the DNA of the offspring does not match either of the parents. An explanation for this is that some stallions may get to have the chance to breed with several other mares even if they are not supposed to be mated. Another explanation is that because of the population of horses, the little ones may get separated from their parents and there is a possibility of exchanging foals.

But thanks to genetic engineering, the errors can now be corrected with ease. Scientific intervention makes business even more booming for animal farms that deal with horses. It is not so easy to verify the parentage of each of the breeds. But if in case the parents have died and there was no chance of getting their DNA samples, the foal may not be registered because of lack of gene samples from each of the parent.

All breeds need to be taken with DNA sample. This is crucial so that even if the dam or sire had died, the foal can still be registered and identified. There are many cases in which the foals are not registered because the parents have died even before the testing was undertaken.

In the near future, it has been projected the scientific interventions like this will continue to develop. The tests will become more accurate. And the loopholes in the technology will be completely solved.




About the Author:



No comments:

Popular Posts