# Genetic Breeding Analysis?



## CT Girl (Nov 17, 2010)

I really don't think that there has been enough research on the canine genome for this to work. The human genome has been researched a lot more and they can't do what they claim for us.


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## 2719 (Feb 8, 2011)

I have tried reading up on genome research in animals and I must admit that it gets too technical for me. I do agree with CT that this is a new avenue of research. I do not know if what Mars offers is valid.

I know Vetgen uses genome research to analyse what background your Mutt might have but I have not seen them advertise the same "breeder information" as Mars.

I did google Mars to see if there were any complaints about them and there were a few but none relating to their Breeder service.


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## Sookster (Apr 11, 2011)

Yeah, Mars offers the "Purebred Certification", "Mixed Breed Analysis", and an appalling "Designer Dog Certification" test, basically to prove that your dog is what you were told that it was, or to find out what your mixed breed is. I don't know about the Mars products specifically, but I have heard that tests like these are very unreliable. 

But I have never heard of anything like this genetic breeding analysis that they offer. Like CT Girl, and kind of think it sounds too good to be true. I don't think that research on the canine genome is advanced enough for this yet. 

I'm not a breeder, and won't be using this, I was just curious to see if anyone here was familiar with it. A vet school friend of mine asked me if I had ever heard of it, and I hadn't. She is doing some genetics research this summer and is got in touch with the company, who gave her contact info for their head geneticist so she is going to try and speak with them about the product.


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## Feathersprings (Jul 15, 2010)

I have a friend that had the breed testing done, she rescued a mixed breed dog and we were trying to guess what it was... ... It ended up being 1/2 Basset, which we knew... we guessed part border collie... no!!! American Eskimo!!!


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## zyrcona (Jan 9, 2011)

From the information available on the site, I would say what it does is compare the genomes of dogs for similarity, and then recommends the dogs with the largest dissimilarity as potential mates. I cannot actually see anything there to suggest it checks for genetic diseases such as VWD. When it analyses a mongrel dog, it will compare the genome with genomes from dogs of known breeds and match it to the two it has the greatest number of genes in common with.

This is a cool thing to have if you adopted a mutt from a shelter and have the disposable cash and would like to finally know what its parents were. However, as a breeding tool, I would say it was no substitute for proper testing and examining the pedigrees of both parents (which will tell you how related they are and thus how genetically similar). Genetic disparity offers no guarantee of both selected parents not carrying VWD genes or bad hips, or the unknown genetic components that may be responsible for SA.


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