DNA - Page 1

Not sure how this apply if at all but If I DNA test my male and my female has a litter is there a database in which to check the bloodlines??

Apparently AKC has such database and can tell you if your male is indeed the sire of the litter, thus leading to his bloodlines... More on this here: http://www.avma.org/onlnews/javma/apr04/040415q.asp But then the question is how helpful AKC database is when it comes to German lines... Does SV (or VDH) have a similar program?

Yes they do. Infact no dogs are allowed to be breed with without their blood being checked. That goes for Switzerland too. That way you can be sure that the paperwork is ok.

Why is there no way to test the DNA for the dam - at least with my understanding of how the AKC has things set up? I have heard of pups being "added" to litters or said to be out of titled females when in fact they are not - yet in many cases the DNA from the sire might be correct if the breeder has only one or 2 stud dogs... Also, how accurate is the test? For example, can it differentiate between 2 males that are littermates as the sire? or between a father vs. son as the sire?

Iggeli, could you please post a link to a (SV?)webpage where proper procedure is described? Thanks! LaPorte, maternity test would be exactly the same as paternity. Once you get DNA from a sample (oral swab, blood, etc.) it does not matter if it came from male or female. It's just that female is usually known (as it is in Doomsayer's case if you read messages on this board yesterday). You theoretically should be able to distinguish between littermates by genetic fingerprinting (DNA testing), provided they have not inherited exactly same alleles for all 14 markers from their parents. Looking at more than 14 markers will help in that situation. Distinguishing between father and son as the sire should be simple, as they have different mothers, and therefore different maternal alleles = different bands on a gel among bands which are the same. Hope this helps :)

OK, perhaps I posed the question incorrectly. Obviously there is way to collect the DNA of a female, but is there a maternity database or program similar to the AKC's stud dog database? In this country? Let's say you want to check your pup's DNA. If the sire is in the AKC's stud database, you can get confirmation, no? Do they also provide any feedback on the dam?

I don't know. If I were you I would go to this website http://www.akc.org/dna/index.cfm (tons of info if you check out links on the left side of the page), or e-mail dna@akc.org, or call 919-816-3508 (DNA department) AKC had DNA profiles of 9,671 GSDs (=database) as of 11/30/05. How many of them are females, I am not sure. Good luck!