Let your dog to become a part of a science!
What we do:
We are developing a genetic test for revealing a dog’s mix-breed origin. This test will help to identify the breeds present in the dog’s pedigree up to three generations. To be able to develop this test, we need to collect DNA samples from purebred individuals and these dogs will be then used as a template to compare with the mixed-breeds. By participating in this project your pet friend becomes an important example for comparison of the dog mixed-breeds from the whole of middle Europe.
The test might help the mixed-breed’s owners to predict some characteristic traits, such as adult size or predilection for specific genetic diseases (e.g. anti-parasitic intolerance in collies).
Who we are:
We are a highly professional team of molecular geneticists from the Faculty of Tropical AgriSciences at the Czech University of Life Sciences in Prague. We have extensive long-term experience in dog genetics projects and we regularly publish in scientific journals.
- Smetanová, M., Černá Bolfíková, B., Randi, E., Caniglia, R., Fabbri, E., Galaverni, M., Kutal, M., Hulva, P. (2015) From Wolves to Dogs, and Back: Genetic Composition of the Czechoslovakian Wolfdog. PLoS ONE 10(12): e0143807. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0143807
- Randi, E., Hulva, P., Fabbri, E., Galaverni, M., Galov, A., Kusak, J., Bigi, D., Černá Bolfíková, B., Smetanová, M., Caniglia, R. (2014) Multilocus detection of wolf x dog hybridization in Italy, and guidelines for marker Selection. PLoS ONE 9(1): e86409.
Samples:
We use a special buccal swab to take the sample from the inside of the cheek. This process is fast and it doesn’t stress or hurt the dog. For the test development we will use thousands of dogs from the 200 most common dog breeds in middle Europe. We take the samples at national and international dog shows in the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Poland, Germany, and Austria. The samples will not be passed to a third party. The samples will be processed exclusively in the Laboratory of Molecular Genetics of the Faculty of Tropical AgriSciences of the Czech University of Life Sciences in Prague and they will not be used for a different purpose. Specific information about individual dogs sampled will be used exclusively for the purposes of the project and will not be published.
We thank all the participating dog owners for providing us with samples and doing so has contributed to the development of the genetic test for revealing of the dog’s origin.
Contact: genetic.dogtest@gmail.com
The project is funded by program GAMA of the Technology Agency of the Czech Republic.
