yes exactly!! and isn’t it great that from now on everybody can avoid this!!
Not without testing before breeding. A mare owner needs to know the status of her mare AND, for carriers at the very minimum, the status of possible sires. It’s a two way street, and a carrier stallion owner is (IMO) heartless if the mare’s status isn’t required before signing a contract and taking the mare owner’s money
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Sir Wanabi who is a widely popular stallion here has tested positive: https://www.facebook.com/SirWanabi/
Sir Wanabi has been tested and is a carrier of WFFS gene. Thankfully this is a extremely manageable issue and will NOT AFFECT the performance career of his foals. We recommend mare owners who wish to purchase a breeding to Sir Wanabi to also test their mares for WFFS gene. Mares that are non carriers of the gene, can safely be bred to Sir Wanabi, with no risk of having an affected foal. This gene has been around for more than 170 years without knowing and, in 12 years of breeding Sir Wanabi and over 200 foals being born we know of no affected foals. Regardless knowledge is power, have your mare tested, Sir Wanabi is not the only carrier stallion. I am happy to help answer any questions you may have. PS the WFFS test is very easy to do, it only takes a hair sample sent to Animal Genetics, Inc in Tallahassee, FL takes 1-2 weeks and cost 40$
There are quite a few widely popular stallions who have tested positive. With negative mares, they can certainly still be used.
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Would "WFFS Tested: Carrier N/WFFS "
Indicate they ARE positive? It’s a little confusing.
Secondly, is this only found in WB’s? Example breeding a TB Mare to a positive stallion would be fine?
If the description is N/WFFS, it means that the stallion is carrier of the WFFS allele and will pass it on to approximately 50% of his foals.
The gene that causes the horrible consequences has been found in types of horses other than WBs. According to UC Davis a while back, they had tested 95 TBs and found a carrier rate of 4%.
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I think you love to be dramatic… saying “the gene that causes the horrible consequences” is very dramatic… The gene will only cause horrible consequences in a very small percentage of cases when 2 carriers are bred. This happened in the past because nobody knew about it. I bet this is now a thing of the past…
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I’d consider spontaneous abortion and EED just as horrible consequences as seeing a live foal that has to be euthanized… All of those are thought to occur when two carriers produce a foal that is homozygous for the WFFS allele. And that is approximately 50% of the time two carriers are bred.
If you want to play Russian Roulette every time you breed, go right ahead. That can happen with or without testing if a carrier is bred to a carrier knowingly or unknowingly.
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I am not sure what you are talking about… . The test was published and everybody has the chance to use it in order to avoid to breed carrier to carrier… So I guess now you can stop to talk about playing Russian Roulette… You are somehow stuck in the past…
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The test costs money, and the QH experience with HERDA has not shown that every breeder will test and/or breed according to the test.
You are assuming that every breeder will test and use the test to determine how to breed. There is still ignorance and willful risk taking.
The next question is this: Will knowing that a stallion is a carrier dissuade mare owners from breeding to him when the mare might also be a carrier? The answer is sometimes yes, sometimes no. One breeder, who requested anonymity, said he is willing to take his chances breeding carrier to carrier because the bloodlines with which he is involved are producing winners in the cutting pen. He has the financial means to take the risk.
From a 2004 The Horse article about HERDA before the test.
https://thehorse.com/15715/hcherda-update-owners-of-carrier-stallions-notified/
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Carrier to carrier = 25% chance of a dead foal, whether embryonic or foaled out. That is neither 50%, nor a “very small percentage” unless the implication there is that most affected embryos will be aborted (an unknown issue), and as a result, not many affected foals will be born. Neither of those is known at this point, and I have not seen anything yet that even points to how many affected embryos are aborted.
25% chance clear, 50% chance carrier, 25% chance affected.
I bet this is now a thing of the past…
It will never be a thing of the past because there will always be people who either don’t test, or breed carriers anyway and take the chance.
Just because information is available doesn’t mean everyone involved will know about it, or care.
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Made a mistake. 50% chance of a carrier just kicks the can down to the next generation.
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So just to be clear, viney and JB, both of you are advocating not breeding to carriers even with tested mares?
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I didn’t say that.
If we prove, or reasonably prove, that carriers have no ill effects (which is likely the case), then there’s no physical reason to avoid breeding a carrier x non-carrier, any more than avoiding breeding Frame Overo x non-frame. Both cause a dead foal in the end in the homozygous form. Neither (for sure Frame, we assume, for now, FFS) cause issues in the carrier.
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Curious, why do you doubt that carriers for WFFS have no ill effects??? the defect has been around for 170 years and some of the best Warmbloods ever were probably carriers… so why do you doubt it?? And another thing, for 170 years it was spreading, because nobody knew about it. It did not do big damage to the Warmblood population (or do you know of any??) so why do you think that now when its known and testable it will cause damage???
so what??? if people don’t care there is nothing to help them (or the horses) we can see it every day 
You will not change anybody who doesn’t care. And if you erase WFFS they will do other things out of neglect or whatever…
But everybody who cares has now the chance to avoid it… I think that huge!!!
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again so what!!! You will not change the mind of breeders… If somebody wants to take a risk, let him do it… They will do it anyhow… The important thing is that normal people now have the chance to avoid to get an affected foal !!!
If somebody is not willing to spend the money for the test he is probably saving money on other ends of the breeding business too not a person I would like to support…
And BTW I heard a rumor through the graveyard that the German Registries have a pretty good solution for it in the future 
So at least in Germany you don’t have to worry about that one
A solution other than testing?
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I don’t want to say anything wrong because I heard it from a person who heard it from a person… And no the solution will of course involve testing…
Please re-read my comment, because you obviously didn’t understand it (again).
Again, you’ve not understood. You said
“The gene will only cause horrible consequences in a very small percentage of cases when 2 carriers are bred. This happened in the past because nobody knew about it. I bet this is now a thing of the past…”
and the problem with your “bet” is counts on everyone testing and doing the right thing by never breeding carrier x carrier. Here, you’ve just argued against your very own comment of betting the lethal outcome is a thing of the past
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