That was an interesting article. So, pedigree is no longer enough and DNA is the best option?
I wonder how that will go over with TB breeders.
Just an aside: the Jockey Club wants to limit the number of mares a stallion can breed each year to 140, and they are getting pushback from several of the big farms. The BloodHorse is the mouthpiece for the JC so this article with its alarmist headline is not much of a surprise. I guess it’s just incredible luck for the JC that a paper on the subject with its “new research” just happened to be published last week?
I must say the JC proposal was the first thing that came to mind when I read the article. If pedigree isn’t enough and DNA analysis is necessary how will the JC plan make a difference?
Not akin to global warming because it’s easily solved by adding in closely related non-TB bloodstock if it actually comes to that. The world is full of very nice closely related horses that know how to run and jump.
Admittedly getting the TB industry to agree to that might be very hard.
I thought the title was sensationalist, but wondered if other registries are running into the same problem. Only difference is, most other registries are open to allowing blood outside of the registry in.
Wonder what the solution will be. It’s certainly a trend, moreso in the dirt-bred TBs than the grass/turf/steeplechasing - to my uneducated eyes, anyway.
So I have a question after reading the article:
The author claims that pedigree can no longer be used to determine relatedness and outcrossing due to inbreeding, and that DNA is best for determining relatedness.
But isn’t that true of every situation, regardless of inbreeding? Reproduction never results in a perfect 50:50 split of genetic information. Sure, roughly half comes from each parent, but certain genes and their resulting traits are more prepotent than others and inheritance patterns will vary. DNA is always going to provide more accurate insight of what exactly was inherited than lineage alone.
I’m curious to read the entire paper, because the article summary didn’t seem to provide anything revolutionary short of a headline with a poor analogy.
I took it as a reminder that pedigree study by breeders won’t help the inbreeding situation at this point in time, only that they consider DNA study of potential matches or complete out crossing will be effective.
That makes sense. Thanks for that interpretation.
