Five years ago, the only DNA tests available to breeders were single mutation tests. Most testing was done a la carte, requiring multiple DNA samples (usually blood) be sent to different labs for each specific test. Now, you can obtain research-grade, comprehensive DNA analyses from a single test that requires only a cheek swab.

It's nice to be spoiled for choice, but it can be difficult for breeders to decide among the options the one that will be best for you.

We've prepared some handy tables that summarize both the basic features as well as the details of the main options available. Once you decide what you need, you should be able to find the best test for your needs.

What DNA testing service should you use?
There are many options available to breeders and owners for DNA testing. Which service is best for you will depend on what information you need and how much you are willing to spend.

The most basic tests are for specific mutations (e.g., eye disorders, blood disorders) or traits (e.g., coat color, bob tail). Other tests offer combinations of genetic diversity, inbreeding, and genetic similarity between individuals. Some offer a breeder tool to assist in mate selection, downloadable raw data file, integration with pedigree and health databases. Some provide the capability for comprehensive breed-wide genetic management for breeds that need to improve the health of their gene pool by better distribution of genetic diversity or incorporating new diversity through cross-breeding. 

With so many options, it can be confusing for breeders to identify the test service that best suits their needs. We have created a table that summarizes the most basic differences among the tests available, and below that is another table with more detail.

The "Mutation/trait" column refers to the labs that detect the genes for specific traits and mutations, either individually or as breed-specific panels. The other tests are the UC Davis genetic diversity test, MyDogDNA (Optimal Selection in the US), Embark Vet, and Institute of Canine Biology (ICB).

If you have any questions about this information, you can contact ICB at info@instituteofcaninebiology.org.

The specifications and offerings of these services might change. This page is current as of January 2017.

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By Carol Beuchat PhD

Please welcome our guest blogger, Milo Melis, who would like to tell you about a program he is involved in to bring the Norwegian Lundehund, the "Puffin dog",  back from the brink of extinction. Because of an unfortunate history of severe population bottlenecks and job loss (Puffin hunting was banned), the breed was reduced to just a handful of highly inbred and related dogs. Many were sickly, puppy mortality was high, and some dogs died of a horrible intestinal disorder.

The decision was made by the Norwegian Lundehund club to attempt to save the breed with a cross-breeding program. With the help of a team of geneticists, a breeding strategy was developed. They made crosses to several related Nordic breeds. The resulting cross-bred F1s were bred back to Lundehunds, and we now have F2 puppies.

My Norwegian friend Milo Melis has offered to give us an update on the Lundehund genetic rescue project.

​Hi! My name is Milo!

​I am 11 weeks old and I am a B-Lundehund. What is a B-Lundehund? They told me it means that I am a very special Lundehund puppy because my mother is a Norwegian Lundehund but my father is half Buhund. I think it means I'm a "best-Lundehund!" 

Everybody seems to like my cute toes, like they're something really special. Whatever. I like to use them to play with the funny Hippo toy I got for Xmas from my dad Banzai. 

I live in Ranheim, Norway, with Aiko, an 11 year old Lundehund, and a 2 year old black cat named Yuki. And of course there is my human family, Claudia and Tomas and their two kids, Viola and Luca. 

Everybody thinks I look a lot like my friend Aiko. He is teaching me all the basic Lundehund stuff like finding mice in the snow and keeping our playground clear of low-hanging branches.

​My BFF (after Aiko, but he's really family) is Milli. She is a Staffordshire Bull Terrier. She can be a bit bossy, but she is teaching me to Play Nicely. She's a really great friend. And we both love the snow!

​We live in the beautiful countryside of Norway. The snow goes forever and there are so many places to play and explore! 

Yuhuu! Finally we get to run and play after too many days of leash walks because the weather was bad.

I will write again soon about my fun puppy adventures! I love you all so much!

Your faithful friend in Norway,
Milo

Oops, I almost forgot. This is a video about my Lundehund ancestors. It shows the little island we lived on and how we hunted Puffins. I hope Aiko and I can go there too when I get older. 

Many thanks to Dr Claudia Melis for the photos and for helping Milo write his first blog post. 

​

ICB is a proud supporter of the Norwegian Lundehund Rescue Project.
​Watch for our article coming out soon in Dogs in Review!

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Inbreeding is part of the process of breed formation in domestic animals and is used to produce homozygosity in the genes most responsible for type and breed-typical traits. But inbreeding is also blamed for the high rates of genetic disorders in purebred dogs (OMIA). Is the level of inbreeding in purebred dogs higher than in other types of domestic animal breeds? How much inbreeding is necessary to produce a domestic animal breed?

The question we want to ask is whether the levels of inbreeding that are typical of purebred dogs are similar to those of other domestic animals.

To address this question, I used data from a paper that documented levels of inbreeding in nearly 40 breeds of horses (Petersen et al 2013) using the same methods used for the dog data (i.e., heterozygosity of thousands of SNP markers). The breeds included everything from modern sport horses, to draft breeds with history going back hundreds of years, and even landrace breeds.

I plotted these data on the same axes I used for the dog data, and did separate graphs for both the mean level of inbreeding as well as the maximum for each horse breed. (Unfortunately, the maximum values were not reported for the dog data.) As before, I included reference lines for inbreeding levels of 6.25% (green; the result of mating first cousins), 12.5% (yellow; mating of half-siblings), and 25% (red; mating of full siblings).

There are three graphs below. First are the dog data, using the same graph presented in my earlier blog post, but turned horizontally so it's easier to compare to the horse data. (See that blog post for a larger, vertical version of this graph).  Below the graph for dogs, there are two graphs for horses: one with the mean inbreeding coefficient for each breed (comparable to the dog data) and a second one with the maximum. 

​Inbreeding Coefficients in Dogs
(Data from Dreger et al 2016)
(From the blog post Inbreeding of purebred dogs determined from DNA)

In horses, only one breed, the Clydesdale, has an average level of inbreeding exceeding 25% (top, red line), whereas in comparision, about 75% of dog breeds were greater than 25%. Inbreeding is less than 12.5% (yellow) in about half of the horse breeds, while only a handful of dogs are this low. 

In horses, even the maximum inbreeding values were greater than 25% in only about a third of the breeds (bottom, red line). 

These data are compelling evidence that inbreeding is much higher in dogs than should be necessary to produce a population of animals with the consistency of traits necessary to be considered a "breed". 

References

Dreger DL, M Rimbault, BW Davis, A Bhatnagar, HG Parker, & EA Ostrander. 2016. Whole genome sequence, SNP chips and pedigree structure: building demographic profiles in domestic dog breeds to optimize genetic trait mapping. http://dmm.biologists.org/lookup/doi/10.1242/dmm.027037.

Petersen JL, JR MIckelson, EG Cothran, and others. 2013. Genetic diversity in the modern horse illustrated from genome-wide SNP data. PLoS One 8(1): e54997. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0054997.