# Genetic Diversity Test....and other interesting stuff!



## patk (Jun 13, 2013)

excellent find! if i were looking for a spoo, this is someone i would want to consider seriously. one of the problems i have run across in looking at tpoo breeders is the inbreeding that is still going on. i hope the message gets to tpoo breeders as well.


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## peppersb (Jun 5, 2011)

I have been following this issue, and it is very exciting to see the new test for genetic diversity. Natalie Tessier of de Grenier Poodles has been the main contact with the scientists at UC Davis who developed the test. She has a fabulous presentation that shows the need for breeders to focus on maintaining diversity in the standard poodle gene pool. Here it is:

New Genetic Diversity Test for Standard Poodles - Poodles de Grenier

On the above page, click on the bar for each chapter repeatedly to move through the slides.

Also, see the following pages:

https://www.facebook.com/TheStandardPoodleProject

https://www.vgl.ucdavis.edu/services/dog/GeneticDiversityInStandardPoodles.php


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## ArreauStandardPoodle (Sep 1, 2009)

A number of breeders who are very concerned with diversity and other issues surrounding our beloved breed are part of a group called the Standard Poodle Project. We are very excited by and have gotten involved in the Canine Diversity Project. At Arreau we now have the results from four of nine of our current and former breeding dogs. We are awaiting the results for the balance. This is so fascinating and encouraging, because we now have another tool to help us choose mates for our breedings that might better compliment one of ours than perhaps someone else we were considering. I am not a great numbers person and some of this is so in depth that it is like reading greek, but thankfully a few of the people I am involved with are very scientifically minded and willing to teach and help. I have been encouraging others to get involved, because the more we see this on paper, the easier it will be to find truly diverse dogs to breed to. The more diverse in their DLA's, the less chance of producing pups with auto immune issues. Very exciting study!

I am attaching Journey's certificate so you can see what the certificates entail:



And this is our matriarch. You can see how different they are:


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## lily cd re (Jul 23, 2012)

This is awesome stuff. Molly thanks for sharing what, I guess, you stumbled onto and thanks to peppersb and Arreau for adding further information. I am looking forward to looking further at all of the links.


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## CharismaticMillie (Jun 16, 2010)

One thing that makes the genetic diversity analysis so exciting is that it provides data that is much more precise and useable than COI, Wycliffe, and the Kennedy DLA numbers alone. Instead of basing decisions solely on COI and Wycliffe, which give you a theoretical idea of genetic heterozygosity, we can now look further to see a measure of *actual* heterozygosity. It also is a test that is not at all incriminating. It provides information to that may allow all breeders to make educated choices. It can actually be as beneficial to someone planning a close line breeding as it can be to someone planning a complete outcross. Additionally, it provides actual data to explain why some high COI or high Wycliffe dogs are very healthy and produce very healthy offspring despite earlier theories. 

Something very interesting is the variation in IR (interrelatedness value) even among litter mates. I noticed this looking at the results of some other dogs. Also, while COI and IR value tend to be in the same general ballpark, they are not always directly correlated. I have results back on two of mine and I'm waiting on the results for the other two. What I found interesting was that my Dog has a lower COI than his daughter, but his daughter has the lower IR value. In other words, she is more outbred than him.

This is very exciting for the future of poodles!


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## mom2m (Dec 24, 2014)

So interesting, and so glad to know there are good things happening in this area!


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## patk (Jun 13, 2013)

does anyone think this will affect the "top producer" category for poodles? i notice that this is something breeders proudly proclaim on their website, but i do wonder how helpful it is to the breed to have everyone clamoring for their wonderful bitch to be bred to the winningest poodle of the year.


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## CharismaticMillie (Jun 16, 2010)

patk said:


> does anyone think this will affect the "top producer" category for poodles? i notice that this is something breeders proudly proclaim on their website, but i do wonder how helpful it is to the breed to have everyone clamoring for their wonderful bitch to be bred to the winningest poodle of the year.


Top Producer is a designation given to a poodle by the Poodle Club of America who has produced a certain number of champion offspring. The Genetic Diversity test is a tool that can be used to assess an individual dog's genetic diversity. Because of the specific information it provides, it could be used to compare a bitch to a top producing stud dog to see if they possess different haplotypes from one another.


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## patk (Jun 13, 2013)

yes, i understand that. but up till now, i think breeders have gone ga-ga over dogs because they are winners and sought to breed their bitches to an akc (or maybe ukc) "top dog," which is how they end up as "top producers," when their offspring show to championships. so a few dogs end up contributing more heavily to the gene pool than others - sometimes inordinately heavily, even. breeding to the winners is, i believe, thought to have contributed to the so-called wycliffe bottleneck. real genetic diversity info might say to a breeder that a better choice than the year's big winner is a dog that didn't even show.


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