Legacy Dexter Cattle Genotype Registry

[sharethelegacy]

There is a misconception regarding the Legacy Dexter Cattle Genotype Registry. To clarify;

Contrary to comments found on threads on this forum Legacy does not need nor seek the approval of any existing association or registry. The Legacy model differs from these organized membership groups. However, Legacy would expect that any association registry would recognize and accept for registry entry an animal which is DNA typed and parentage confirmed for one or multiple generations and exceeds the requirements of registration for that registry which would be the case with all Legacy registrations. To this purpose Legacy assures that all animals meet and exceed the registration requirements of existing registries.

The Legacy genotype registry began as a database for the purpose of DNA typing Dexters in the preservation effort and confirming parentage to maintain integrity of the effort. It was also a mission and focus of Legacy to make a permanent record of every possible Dexter with the original focus on the oldest Dexters in the US. As testing and registration requirements expanded throughout the breed the numbers of Dexters added to the database increased. Because the importance of this effort was always noted animals that were genotyped through the Legacy testing program were added to the database on behalf of both the breed and owners at no additional charge with the intention that owners could afford to maintain a voluntary parentage confirmed herd and register their animals with their association of choice.

Legacy does not now or in the future intend to be an association. It is a voluntary effort to make a permanent record of the Dexter cattle breed and to provide a wide array of services to the benefit of Dexter owners and to the Dexter breed.

In some instances, owners do not wish to participate in organized associations and Legacy has made an effort, with donated funds, to make a record of these animals and/or to encourage owners to do so. Legacy has also worked with owners who have lost control/identification of animals in their herds to restore the identity and integrity of the herds. This is of great benefit to the Dexter breed and a significant number of Dexters have been recorded by this effort.

All Dexters in the Legacy database have an individualized and permanent record of their identity and all offspring are parentage confirmed. All DNA genotyped Dexters are welcome in the Legacy genotype database/registry. In this effort, it serves a unique purpose.

[Olga]

Just my opinion. I have said this before: I believe that any Dexter Cattle that can be traced back through genotype and parentage verification to ADCA or PDCA registered cattle should be eligible for registration in ADCA and PDCA. That is, without having to go back and get paper certificates for the generations in between.

[kansasdexters]

Olga,

I agree that animals that can prove parentage through multiple generations back to ADCA or PDCA registered animals, should be eligible for registration. But I believe that the generations "in between" must be properly registered and paid for with the registry of choice, before the descendent is registered. Here's why:

1. If "in between" generations are allowed to be genotyped, but not properly registered, and their offspring are permitted into the registry without having ancestry properly registered, then the registry is being "cheated" of the fee that pays for the registrar's time to make the necessary entries into the database to complete the pedigree and properly record the ownership transfers and progeny records.

2. The registration fee that is paid for each individual animal, as it is registered or transferred, is how the registrar(s) are compensated for their hours of work to set-up the data pages, make the entries, print out the certificates, and pay for the postage and envelopes to mail certificates out. It is also the source of funds used to maintain the database, pay for upgrades in the software, etc.

3. If exceptions are constantly being made to register animals that weren't properly registered by the breeder, it places a greater burden on the registrar (extra hours of effort) without compensating the registrar for the extra work being done. It also isn't fair to all the responsible breeders that have paid their registration fees in a timely manner and properly registered their animals through the generations.

4. When animals in intervening generations are not registered and paid for, there are blanks in the pedigree of the eligible animal that is being registered and paid for. This is what it looks like in the registry's online pedigree:

www.dextercattle.org/pedigreedb/ponyweb.cgi?horse=P203114&ParentID=P201941&Page=1&Sort=6 and then you finally get to the properly registered descendent, that has an incomplete pedigree:
www.dextercattle.org/pedigreedb/ponyweb.cgi?horse=034839&ParentID=P206811&Page=1&Sort=6


We don't want to end up with a registry that is full of blanks in the pedigrees because people skipped paying for the registrations in the intervening generations and were allowed to register their animals anyway. That won't serve the breed or the members of either the PDCA or ADCA properly.

So it's fine by me to use parentage testing and genotypes to "catch-up" on registrations and help assure an accurate pedigree. But it's not okay to "skip generations" of registrations and registration fees when this is done. The registrar deserves to be properly compensated for making the entries and maintaining the registry database; and these entries need to be made in order to maintain the integrity of the registry.


Patti

[Olga]

It can be done like an imported animal certificate, just start out as LEG # and show no parentage.

[kansasdexters]

Genebo,

Your statement is not correct. Chuck tried to catch up pedigrees on a few PDCA animals that were registered ADCA, and then it became such an overwhelming task, that he had Dan Butterfield (an unpaid volunteer) helping him for awhile to make the historical entries. So you can thank Dan for doing most of those old pedigrees that got put into the ADCA database. Then the decision was made by Chuck that eligible registered Dexters from other registries would just be shown in the ADCA with their sire and dam. After that point, PDCA animals that were brought into the ADCA had a lot of blanks in their pedigrees.

Since the Legacy genotype database is privately owned by an individual, it is not considered as an official registry by the ADCA or by the PDCA, so the animals that are in the Legacy genotype database, with only a genotype, would not be shown in the ADCA registry as a "foreign" registered animal. A Dexter would need to have a registered sire and a registered dam with either ADCA registration numbers, or a PDCA registration numbers, or an accepted foreign registration number, in order to be registered in the ADCA.


Patti

[Olga]

Like Judy or not, Legacy is based on VGL documentation that can be verified.

[kansasdexters]

Olga,

It's not a matter of "like Judy or not". For a Dexter to be entered into the Legacy database, all it takes is a genotype of that animal and that it is out of a registered sire and a registered dam. It does not have to be sire qualified or dam qualified in order to be entered into the Legacy database.

Now, if that animal is a bull or cow, born after January 1, 2010, then its sire's genotype must be "on file" with ADCA, in order for it to be eligible for registration with ADCA. If it's a bull, then it must be "Sire Qualified" as a minimum, in order to be eligible for registration with ADCA. The Legacy database doesn't have that requirement, so there are animals in the Legacy database that cannot be directly registered with the ADCA. In order to become eligible, additional genotypes are needed to assure the pedigree of the animal being presented for registration. Just having a genotype for the animal (VGL documentation) and a Legacy number is not enough. It would be viewed the same as if someone submitted an ADCA registration application and just put a Lab case number for the Sire's registration number and a Lab case number for the Dam's registration number -- it would not meet the ADCA registration application requirements.


Patti

[zephyrhillsusan]

For those of you who are interested in understanding how the parentage testing procedure works, UCDavis has an explanation on their website. If you scroll down a little way there are several examples given.  If you make it all the way to the bottom of the page, you will find this:

Accuracy of Parentage Analysis

Parentage testing identifies individuals that, due to a specific combination of marker alleles, could qualify as a parent for a particular offspring. Accurate parentage testing requires breeders to identify possible parents since if considering a randomly selected large group of individuals there could be more than one that qualifies as a parent. As an example, human paternity testing was originally developed as a means to verify that a named individual could or could not be the father of a given child. At most it was meant to determine if one of several men could be the father of a child. The same rules hold true for animal parentage testing. A good application for animal parentage testing is verification that the dam is correct and which of the sires on a particular farm are the actual sire.

Finally, it is important to remember that while parentage exclusions are 100% accurate parentage qualifications are not. The accuracy of most animal parentage tests is greater than 99% when both parents are included in the analysis and drops to around 95% when only one parent is included in the analysis. However, this accuracy will decrease when the potential parents are part of a large group of closely related animals. Again, an animal closely related to an actual parent could possess marker alleles that make it appear to be the correct parent. To prevent erroneous parentage qualifications, breeders need to submit samples from all possible parents when first requesting parentage verification. If more than one sire and one dam qualify as parents of an offspring the laboratory can then test with additional DNA markers to sort out the actual parents.

This was very helpful to me, so I wanted to pass it on.

ETA: Correcting link to UCDavis/VGL site on parentage testing.  I just came back to this discussion looking for the link on the VGL site, and lo and behold, I failed to include the link.     Better late than never, I guess!