Questions on genotyping and pv

[rhonda]

I am a little confused (or a lot) about a couple things. The parent verification--is it a different test than genotyping? Do you do both if so? I have jumped around for the testing I have done..some are at UCD and some at Texas. Will I have to pay to get all these test recorded at one place? I do see the reasoning for pv'ing for obligate status. I wish I had done all the testing at one place to start with--I think I see a lot of $$ going out to get them all together. Will ADCA let us pv with a cow tested at UCD and Bull at Texas?

[zephyrhillsusan]

rhonda, Parent Verification (PV) is different from genotyping.  Genotyping is getting the "genetic fingerprint" from the animal's tail hairs.  PV is the process of comparing a calf's genotype (genetic fingerprint) to the genotypes of both of its parents.  It's like when you read about men doing a DNA swab for a paternity test, just with both parents.

If your tests are at different places, you will have to transfer them to one lab or another.  I believe Patti addressed that issue in your question on the other thread.  It's not all that expensive, not near as costly as redoing them all.  

This is a very important question you asked:

Will ADCA let us pv with a cow tested at UCD and Bull at Texas?

It's not a matter of the ADCA "letting" you do it.  It can't be done.   PV is meaningless unless all 3 genotypes--sire, dam and calf--are compared at the same lab at the same time by the same person.  Here's a blog post I did about PV and why it has to be done that way.  It's a bit long, but hopefully explains the issue.  If you have any other questions, fire away on here or PM me.  Lots of people have lots of questions, so you aren't alone.  I personally find the whole process fascinating, especially the explanation someone from UCD gave me with the example of the animal that was "sire qualified" at one lab and "dam qualified" at the other--but when they compared the three genotypes together, it became clear that one of them was NOT the parent!  My post has a simplified version of the numbers, but it illustrates an actual problem that has occurred more than once, and it highlights why all the results have to be at the same lab.

UCD recommends (on their website, I believe) that if you are testing a herd sire, you re-genotype him at the lab you plan to use, instead of transferring a genotype.  That is definitely the most sure way, and since his DNA will be in every calf produced on your farm, why not spend the small amount of money to do it the best way?  TAMU and UCD use some different markers, and UCD uses more markers and doesn't round them off, which TAMU does for certain ones.