Kalevi

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I think it raises significant questions and these have been posed to GTG and some regulatory bodies. So the questions going round my head are: - If its so easy to get a containmated sample then does it make this test ineffective? - What controls are in place to pick up on containmated swabs? - Should DNA profiles be run along with PRA to ensure the swab is not contanimated? - Given we have false affected results, can false clear results occur (which obviously opens a huge can-o-worms)... We'll keep you updated on whatever we hear.

Hi all - I'm sharing this with the DOL community - raises some questions for those who swab test for prcd/PRA. A similar letter has been sent to the National Associaltion of Testing Authorities, Aust (NATA), Australian Dept of Primary Industries (DPI), DogsVic and Optigen USA. Vanessa Brotto is the author and I am the 'breeder' of the tested dog. 22/2/2013 RE: GENETIC TECHNOLOGIES (GTG) Dear Sir or Madam I would like to bring to ………………. attention the issues I havehad with Animal Network Genetic Technologies (GTG) with regard to some prcd/PRAresults. Under the Code of practice forthe responsible breeding of animals with heritable defects that cause disease" every breeder that mates a Carrier Dog to a Clear Dog must " Progenyto be used for breeding purposes must be tested for the heritable defect" As I am a breeder of a type of dog that fallsunder this legislation, I have endeavoured to follow the law and test mypuppies/breeding stock for prcd/PRA. Dog breeders under Victorian Legislation andAustralia wide use GTG to test their dogs for genetic diseases and then makebreeding decisions based on these test results. I have personally beenusing GTG labs since 2005 for prcd/PRA disease testing. GTG is the only labthat we are able to use for such testing. This week, I received a certified report statingthat one of my dogs is Affected with prcd/PRA. I queried this result as both the sire and thedam had been tested by this lab, the sire coming back certified CLEAR and thedam coming back certified CARRIER. So based on a simple recessive mode of inheritancefor PRA, this dog cannot be an affected. I contacted Genetic Technologies viaemail alerting them to this error, as did the dog's breeder. GTG said theywould conduct further tests to see what had gone wrong on both samples I hadsubmitted. On the 21/2/2013 I phoned GTG and spoke to………………., asking if there had been any results. She informed me that they hadfinished their investigation but was not ready to let me know the results. Shetold me I would be contacted the next day with the results. On the 22/2/2013 I was contacted by …………………… byphone at 9.30am where she informed me that the first swab tested had come backas "contaminated" therefore giving a false positive. She inferred that"contamination" meant that there were two sources of DNA in that particularswab. The second swab showed only one dog's DNA and had returned a result ofCarrier. When I asked why a certified result had beengiven on a false positive, ………….said the only way to tell if a sample wascontaminated was to run a DNA profile, which they do not do before diseasetesting. When I asked for assurances that all my previously tested dogs alongwith my current litter samples were the correct results, her answer was simplythat they run hundreds of tests. I informed …………… that I was not happy withthat answer as that does not assure me that previously tested dogs results areactually correct. I then asked for the results of the further testing which hadbeen done during their investigation to be emailed to me. …………. said she couldn'tsend them to me, although I was welcome to come into GTG to view them. Iresponded that as I had paid money for these tests that I required the resultsto be emailed to me. I was refused. On 22/2/2013, I made a secondphone call asking for a copy of the test results and this time I was informedthat they would not be released to me until the following Tuesday. On the sameday, 22/2/2013 the dog's breeder also contacted them requesting the results,but they refused. A deadline was given to GTG for getting the results by 5pm orwe would be taking this matter further. Just on the close of business on22/2/2013, I received an email from GTG. In this email I was informed that the swab which tested asPRA Affected could be for two reasons. Either, the swab was contaminated attime of collection OR the testing procedure was incorrect. As indicated above,the DNA profiling conducted on this swab returned a result which indicated thepresence of more than one source of DNA. The second swab collected and then subsequently tested cameback as PRA Carrier with only one dog's genetic markers present in the DNAprofiling. Below is Genetic Technologies' actual wording from theattached email: "Theresults revealed for DOG40510 that the DNA profiling for swab one showedevidence of contamination in the profiling test thus giving a false affected result.However swab two showed a single source profile that was a carrier. NOTE: If the swabwas contaminated with another dogs DNA on collection; then the profile of thetwo dogs would be different. If the swabwas not contaminated with another dogs DNA on collection; then the testprocedure for PRCD would be in error." In this email I received the DNA profile for swab2 only. I emailed requesting a copy of the other results (especially the DNAprofile of the "contaminated" swab) but nothing came through. I followed upwith a phone call and was told they could not supply them. The questions the above situation raises are: - An Affected certificate was issued on the basis of asuspected "contaminated" swab. - GTG have stated that they do not run DNA profiles on theswabs before disease testing, so there appears to be nothing in place to checkif the source has been contaminated or not before they issue a certificate withan official result. - How many certified results have been based on "contaminated"swabs? - How can "contamination" return a false Affected result?(Please note that there were no prcdPRA Affected dogs in the vicinity of thedog that was tested. In fact, there are no Affected dogs of this breed in thewhole of Australia and this particular Direct DNA Mutation test is specific forthis breed). - How can GTG then guarantee that all certified results whichhave been issued by them are correct? - Under the legislation as breeders we must supply a copy ofthe prcd/PRA test results to our purchasers to fulfil the law. The above raisesquestions as to the accuracy of the results we are obtaining from GTG and thenpassing onto our purchasers. I have asked the above questions of GTG and as ofwriting this letter have not received adequate answers to them. When GTG first conducted testing for diseasesthey used to run DNA samplings of each swab first and supplied the DNA resultsalong with the disease test results. This was stopped some years ago and if youwanted DNA profiles you needed to pay extra for this test. . I would appreciate any assistance that …………… maybe able to offer in investigating GTG to see if they are following correcttesting procedures and therefore giving out correct certified test results onour canines. Only with this assurance, can I and my fellow breeders makeappropriate breeding decisions and abide by the Victorian Legislation on dogbreeding. Yours Sincerely Vanessa Brotto

Curious - what's the hip breed average in Labs? I've heard of lots of cases of parents with perfect hips producing failing hips and vise versa, and even a big shift in puppies of the same litter. I guess in your shoes I'd be a tad upset with the breeder for misleading you. That's very wrong. But moving forward I guess I'd be doing the Penn Hip as soon as you can and making decisions from there. Good luck.

I much prefer the idea of entering online than via potal. All its going to take for Vic is some forward thinking show secretary to trail blaze the way. The rest will catch on I'm sure.

There is no accurate test. I would call your dog a terrier cross, because he looks like a terrier. There could be a number of breeds in there. I beleive that Gen Tec have a test called Bitza http://www.animalnetwork.com.au/bitsa/ The site says: BITSA uses advanced DNA technology to identify the breed/s of your dog. A simple cheek swab from inside your dog's mouth enables the collection of cells for DNA extraction. Your dog's DNA is then referenced against our extensive list of breed signatures, giving your dog its unique breed make-up

I'd say the overall feeling of this thread is don't show in the height of the season...

It was pretty good :-) sorry can't concentrate to be serious this month. Will have to wait to January to get back in the swing!!!

Heheh - ok this is camera. Stictly I didn't take it - I'm bottom right with the camera in the air :-) Which takes us straight onto drool - now whilst you can't see the drool, this one is going to make you drool, cause that's my hand on Jon Bon Jovi's leg And this one can come under a variety of categories including guitar, rock, joy and of course don't touch :-)

I like this - its telling the story of the flower and not the butterfly.

I'm am totally enjoying this thread and all the great shots :D you've all inspired me to get off my butt and take some photos and today I changed my settings to RAW..why haven't I done this earlier I'm finding taking shots under exposed and tweaking blacks,exposure,fill light in lightroom are producing some good results.thanks for the comments and keep those photos coming. ;) f4.5 1/320sec ISO100 On this waterfall pic - did you focus on the top of the fall, hence you've got that water in focus and the rest as the blur? Just curious :-)

Is that what you are saying or your dog

I love this one, it looks so tactile Thanks - my aim was to try and create a photo that was almost 3D in effect, so really appreciate the tactile comment :-)

I really like this shot, love how the black is lifted by the white background and the white of his body then fades. Looks really stylish.

Heheh - no slobber, although my lens took a few licks :-) I love the green in yours, assuming you ran it though effects to get that in Lightroom? Gotta have a look how to do that...