East Anglian Border Collie Club

At the request of the Border Collie Breed Council, the General Committee of the Kennel Club has recently approved two new official DNA testing schemes for Collie Eye Anomaly/Choroidal Hypoplasia (CEA/CH) and Ceroid Lipofuscinosis (CL) in the Border Collie.

These tests are offered by OptiGen in America and further details can be obtained from www.optigen.com.

Copies of all future test certificates issued by OptiGen will be sent directly to the Kennel Club, where the test result will be added to the dog’s details on the registration database.  This will trigger the publication of the test result in the next available Breed Records Supplement, and the result will also appear on any new registration certificate issued for the dog and on the registration certificates of any future progeny of the dog.

Owners of dogs which are dual registered with both the Kennel Club and the ISDS should ensure that only the KC registration number is included on any OptiGen request or application form.

Owners who have already had their dog(s) DNA tested for these conditions can send the test certificate into the Kennel Club and the data will be added to the dog’s registration details. In addition, if the owner includes the original registration certificate for the dog (not a copy) then a new registration certificate will be issued, with the DNA result on it, free of charge.  Please send the DNA test certificates to:

The Information Department

The Kennel Club, 1 – 5 Clarges Street, Piccadilly, London, W1J 8AB

For further information on this scheme please contact Dr Jeff Sampson, either by phone on 020 7518 1068 or by email jeff.sampson@thekennelclub.org.uk.

THE EABCC has the following information (from Dr Sampson) to add to the KC Press Release:

Dr Sampson,

I read with interest the KC release of information that they will now accept the results of DNA tests, namely CEA & CL, performed on Border Collies. This is a good step forward.

 

However, part of the release does concern me greatly "Owners of dogs which are dual registered with both the Kennel Club and the ISDS should ensure that only the KC registration number is included on any OptiGen request or application form."

I am very proud of the fact that I have both 'dual registered' and 'KC only' Border Collies. When I choose to breed from my CEA Carrier bitch, who is dual registered, I will want the results of DNA tests performed on her progeny on both sets of registration documents.

With the wording as it appears in your press release, I am going to be prevented from doing that. Surely that cannot be right?

You are no doubt already aware of the rules/criteria applied by the ISDS some time ago in relation to test results being added to a dogs record...part of that is that the ISDS registration number & name should appear on the test application.

What am I to do when I breed from my Carrier? or if I choose to use a CEA Carrier dog on one of my Normal bitches?

In this case, if I am forced into making a choice of which registering body to comply with, I will choose the ISDS.

Those of us with dual registered Border Collies feel very strongly about keeping and maintaining our ISDS registrations and all that goes hand in hand with that.

I implore you to revise your criteria, to include allowing any ISDS registered dogs numbers to also appear on the test applications which will then be processed in the same way that you already plan to do. I wouldn't have thought that having 2 sets of registration numbers would cause the KC a problem since they are vastly different in format.

Whilst I write, I will take this opportunity to ask when you, the KC, are going to accept the results of TNS tests, adding and maintaining them in a dogs record as you have outlined that you will with those test results for CEA & CL?

 

Yours...

 

The reason that we said that was as a result of the way that Optigen have set their system up to relay results directly to the KC. 

What they did was to set up a field on their application form for DNA testing which asks for information of KC registration.  If this field is populated, then they send us the result directly, if it isn’t then we do not get the result from Optigen. 

So, if you said on the application that the dog was ISDS registered, and failed to tell them that it was also KC registered, we would not get the result sent to us. 

I hope that is clear, but it is simply a consequence of the way that Optigen has set up their end f the system to ensure that results of KC registered dogs get sent directly to the KC. 

If there is a problem and we don’t get a the result directly, then you can always send us a copy of the Optigen DNA certificate and we will add it to the system.

 

So, do I understand it correctly that, if I tell Optigen that the dog under test is registered both with the KC and the ISDS, you will still get the results sent to you?

 

Yours...

 

That is correct.

 

Do you have an answer for me regarding my question about the TNS test results please?

Yours..

Sorry, I missed that out in my response.  I am in fact in discussion with the Breed Council over this matter. 

As far as I am aware, Alan Wilton in Australia has yet to find the precise mutation that causes TNS. 

He tells me that he knows the gene involved, but not yet the mutation in it.  Thus the DNA test that he is presently offering is what might be called a linkage-based test and the KC took a decision sometime ago not to put the results of linkage-based tests on toe registration system. 

I have asked the breed council to let me know if they have any more up-to-date information on Alan’s progress and to let me know if the test is now a mutation-based test that will allow us to publish the results.  If it has moved onto this type of test, then I will contact Alan to see if h will be prepared to participate in an Official KC DNA testing scheme.

 

Dr Sampson,

Thank you for your replies so far, it seems that I do have more questions that have arisen out of the topic of adding DNA test results to dogs records.

You have already detailed what information you will accept from Optigen. For those of us who have had the CL test performed elsewhere (same test, just less cost to us), such as with Alan Wilton or at Genetic Science Services et al will you accept, add and maintain that information in the same way that you will for that emanating from Optigen?

For those of us who have had CEA DNA tests done elsewhere (same test, just less cost to us), such as with Alan Wilton or at Genetic Science Services et al will you accept, add and maintain that information in the same way that you will for that emanating from Optigen?

We will happily accept results from laboratories that are known to us, and both Alan W and GSS are known to us.  However, we will need to see a cop0y of the DNA tst certificate before we add the result(s) to our system

I am currently waiting for a reply from the Pastoral Breeds Health Foundation to a question I asked about whether Alan Wilton (Jeremy Shearman) has found the exact mutation to facilitate the definitive test for TNS. If that is the case what information, exactly, will the KC accept to have added and maintained in a dogs records for those already tested, and those to be tested in the future?

I was talking to someone over the weekend who was sure that Alan had now developed a mutation-based test for TNS, so I am now proposing to contact him to verify this and ascertain whether he would be willing to participate in an Official programme with us.  We need his acceptance because it will mean a bit of extra work for someone at his end.  Of course, he may hand it all over to GSS and then we will have to talk to them.

One further question for the moment. How far (long, how many generations) will the DNA Status of any given dog be maintained through its progeny? For example, 'My Beautiful Bitch' (Kellie) is Normal for CEA & CL and she has been bred to only Normal males. Those progeny (and so on for say 10 generations or more) are only bred to 'normal' partners will the 'Normal by parentage'  wording continue to appear on the registration documents of those offspring already born and those yet to be conceived?

The hereditarily clear should carry through the generations, but I am not sure that we have really tested that rigorously, if there are problems, then I am sure that we will be informed and we will then be able to get our IT people in to sort it out.