Why One Lab?

If your horse was sick, wouldn’t you want the most-trusted doctors, treatments and medications for him? Would you take your horse to a veterinarian who doesn’t follow strict, medically approved protocols?

That’s how AQHA has approached its continued use of one laboratory to handle all of the Association’s blood-typing, DNA testing, parentage verification and genetic health and disease testing. Integrity of the breed is AQHA’s paramount job as a breed registry, and the Association has been genetically testing horses since the 1960s, beginning with blood typing.

In the early years, horses were blood typed only when questions arose about their parentage. AQHA rules have evolved through the years to include DNA testing of all breeding horses, parentage-verification testing for many foals and genetic health/disease testing. 

“Back in the 1960s, parentage testing was new to the industry and there were a lot of unknowns about testing protocols and labs, at least for AQHA,” says AQHA Registrar Tammy Canida. “Rules were put on hold until a qualified lab could be identified. Hence, the relationship with the University of California-Davis began, primarily because of the reputation of Dr. Clyde Stormont.”

Dr. Stormont developed his research field of serology and immunogenetics during its early forming period and rapidly pioneered advances on many fronts, according to the University of California-Davis website. His early work led to the clarification of the 12 blood group systems in cattle, followed by the description of eight genetic systems of red blood cell antigens and their antibodies in horses. He organized the serology laboratory to serve cattle and equine breed groups to develop databases for individual identification and marking for purposes of inheritance studies and reference to genetic disease abnormality patterns.

The serology laboratory is now the UC Davis Veterinary Genetics Laboratory (VGL). AQHA was one of the first equine breed registries to work with the lab.

A few of the reasons AQHA has continued its relationship with Veterinary Genetics Laboratory:
•    VGL is the leading animal DNA lab for parentage testing in the world.
•    VGL is a leader in equine genetic research.
•    The lab is a member of the International Society for Animal Genetics, receiving an absolute 1, the highest ranking, in testing comparisons.
•    VGL received the highest level that can be achieved by a testing lab, receiving accreditation by the American National Standards Institute National Accreditation Board (ANAB).
•    VGL is a not-for-profit laboratory, and its mission is to develop and provide high quality, accurate animal DNA testing services while promoting and enhancing research and education in animal genetics that improves animal health, performance, and well-being.

“AQHA led the way for equine testing then and continues to do that today, in part because of the relationship with VGL and its focus on quality of testing, and research dedicated to the health and well-being of the horse,” says Tammy, who adds that AQHA rules provide for the Association’s ownership of any blood, hair and DNA samples that are submitted to the Association. “It’s important for our members to recognize that Quarter Horse blood and hair samples are also vital to research that will allow us to better care for our horses.”

AQHA has not always used a single lab for testing.

“When we did blood typing, we used multiple labs because of the challenges associated with getting the blood sample to the lab in a testable condition,” Tammy says. “Back then, less than 100 horses were tested in a year, and a small percentage of horses were parentage verified. When a parentage test was needed, AQHA sent the genetic marker profile for the sire, dam and foal to the company that needed to perform the analysis.”

Several challenges became apparent very quickly: Not all labs followed the same testing protocols; the logistics of sharing the markers with different companies for each case was not feasible; not all labs have quality controls in place; and all results were at a high risk of error because of the manual entry and validation at the lab level and at the AQHA level.

The biggest red flag raised in accepting results from multiple labs came when AQHA introduced HYPP testing.

“Many ‘pop-up labs’ for lack of a better term, began marketing to our members to do that testing cheaper and faster,” Tammy says. 

“We discovered that some of those labs weren’t following the same protocols for testing. Genetic and DNA testing protocols are like a recipe, and if you don’t follow the recipe, you’re not going to get the right/correct results.”

Therefore, some weren’t getting the correct results. Horse owners were making business and life-and-death decisions for their horses – sometimes euthanizing horses whose conditions could have been managed – based on incorrect results.

“When those results are wrong, it is not always known until several years later, and it cannot be undone,” Tammy says. “That comes at a significant cost and, at times, heartache for the owners.

That’s when AQHA staff and leadership decided that the Association, its members and horses deserved a trustworthy and credible lab that could produce correct and reliable results.

“In 1997, we made a recommendation to the AQHA Executive Committee to exclusively use one laboratory for all testing, and the Executive Committee supported the recommendation,” Tammy says. “Today, more than 70,000 horses are tested each year.”

This decision led to many other benefits.

“One of the largest benefits is having a single database that can be used for parentage questions and horse identification,” Tammy says. “About 3 percent of the horses tested each year result in an exclusion in parentage.” 

This tool would not exist if more than one company was used, and many cases would remain unsolved, which means the horses could not be registered. Additional benefits include being able to compare samples when a horse has more than one test, the ability to negotiate lower fees for quantity testing, streamlined and automated reporting between AQHA and the lab, and it provides a treasure trove for research projects.

“If we used more than one lab, it would risk eliminating entire population segments from research projects,” she says. 

AQHA has had a long-standing, solid relationship with VGL.

“We routinely visit with other labs to do our due diligence and ensure that AQHA is positioned to continue the standard of testing our members expect and that is required to keep the breed’s genetic data secure and relevant,” Tammy says. “We also want to ensure we are moving forward as the technology advances in the scientific world.”

“When you have a strong partnership with a company that delivers quality results for our members and shares our mission, it seems like an obvious choice,” Tammy says.

Results are reported with a 99.999 percent accuracy rate. We know their quality controls are impeccable. VGL holds AQHA data and information proprietary and follows principled standards. 

VGL is practical for scientific advancements. The lab investigates methods to be progressive as AQHA’s needs evolve and as AQHA’s members’ desire for new tests grows, supporting testing for peer reviewed, scientifically validated variants. VGL also provides educational material and expertise related to genetic testing and genetic diseases. The lab was instrumental in AQHA’s transition from blood typing to DNA testing years ago and will be again when it’s time to move to a new testing platform in the future.   

VGL scientists initiate research projects related to the genetics of the horse, and the lab participates in projects with other scientists to share data to allow discoveries that make it possible for horse owners to produce and manage healthier horses.

“Honestly, no other company has come close to meeting the expectations for quality and standards that we have come to expect for our members,” Tammy says.