FAQs

 

Q: What sample do I need to send in for the ADVANCE® Mixed Breed Identification DNA Test?

A: 0.5ml (minimum) EDTA Blood Tube

 

Q: Why does the ADVANCE Mixed Breed Identification DNA Test require a blood sample? Can we not use a cheek swab?

A: Adequate quantity of high-quality DNA is required. DNA of this quality and quantity can only be obtained from a small blood sample, which can easily be collected during a routine veterinary visit. DNA from blood is considered superior to cheek swab samples in both stability and purity.

 

Q: How do I get the sample to the laboratory?

A: The ADVANCE Mixed Breed Identification DNA Test contains all the details you need to get the sample transported to the laboratory. It includes a postage paid package and Australia Post approved packaging to transport the sample safely.

 

Q: Does the blood sample need to be refrigerated?

A: DNA is stable at room temperature, it is preferable that once you collect the blood sample you post it to the laboratory as soon as possible. If storing the sample before posting, you can store it at 4°C.

 

Q: How long will it take to get results back?

A: All ADVANCE Mixed Breed Identification DNA Tests are sent to the Mars US laboratory for analysis. Once the sample has been received at the lab it generally takes up to three weeks for the sample to be tested and for the results and report to be generated. Results will be sent directly to your veterinarian. You can track your sample using your sample ID and surname at www.advancepet.com.au/DNA

 

Q: Can I have results faxed to my clinic?

A: The ADVANCE Mixed Breed Identification DNA Test is a coloured, customised report which includes information on breed, health and nutrition facts. It can only be downloaded as a PDF and the electronic reporting system does not have the ability to deliver reports via fax.

 

Q: Are we able to discuss/query the results with a scientist locally?

A: ADVANCE has trained representatives who can clarify any information on results. We also have access to all raw data which can be provided to any clinic upon request. If you require details on more scientific issues, the ADVANCE Customer Enquiries team can direct you to our geneticist to further clarify any results.

 

Q: Why are the samples sent to the US for testing?

A: All the testing for the MARS DNA Breed test - US, UK, Canada and Australia - is carried out in the Mars laboratory in the US. It allows for efficiency and ability to run and analyse data in the one accredited facility.

 

Q: My dog's results have come back on the breeds detected are nothing like what my dog looks like.

A: Physical appearance is controlled by a very small number of genes. These genes can have both recessive and dominant variants and the variant that is present determines the visible effect on physical traits seen. The presence of breed signatures does not guarantee that the dog will look like all detected breeds - the wonder of genetic inheritance can be seen as much in people as in dogs.

 

Q: Can ADVANCE Mixed Breed Identification DNA Test be used for a purebred dog?

A: ADVANCE Mixed Breed Identification DNA Test is intended for use on dogs that are mixed breed to help determine their breed history. The test is specifically designed to look for the combination of ancestral breeds in mixed breed dogs. Where pure breed dogs are concerned, most often the report will simply indicate the pure strain of the breed in question. However, although our sample database covers 200+ breeds and comprises more than 10,000 samples in total, there are several cases in which pure breed dogs may not be reported as such. For instance, if the breed is not or was not bred within Australia, then we may not pick up the breed signature, as foreign lines often have very different genetic signatures. In addition, if there has been a very isolated breeding line for the pure breed, then we may not have enough coverage of that breed's gene pool to identify the dog as purebred.

 

Q: Can I perform the ADVANCE Mixed Breed Identification DNA Test on puppies?

A: Yes, the ADVANCE Mixed Breed Identification DNA Test is designed for dogs of all ages. Please note that care should be taken when taking blood from young puppies.

 

Q: Can you test for Dingoes?

A: Our Wisdom Panel DNA tests were developed using genetic markers specific for dogs. These tests were not intended to test Dingo DNA and this species is not included in the database of dog breeds.

 

Q: Do you test for pitbulls?

A: The term Pit-Bull does not refer to a single or recognised breed of dog, but rather to a genetically diverse group of breeds. Due to the genetic diversity of this group, we can not build a DNA profile for the Pit-bull.

 

Q: Do you provide proof of parentage?

A: Unfortunately, at this time we do not offer proof of parentage.

 

Q: Does your test denote which parent is the mother and father?

A: Our test is not able to determine which parent is the father or the mother at this time.

 

Q: My dog just died can I still do a DNA test?

A: We do not recommend trying to take a sample from a deceased dog, whatever the circumstance, as the quality of the sample will likely be unusable for our test purposes.

 

Q: What is the relationship between the ADVANCE Mixed Breed Identification DNA Test and the Wisdom Panel Professional Mixed Breed Identification Test?

A: The ADVANCE Mixed Breed Identification DNA Test has been adapted from the Wisdom Panel Professional Mixed-Breed Identification test for use on Australian dogs. The Wisdom Panel Professional test is the result of years of extensive research and draws on the expertise of scientists at the internationally respected Waltham Centre for Pet Nutrition in the United Kingdom, along with leading veterinarians, universities and breed organisations throughout the world. For more information on the Wisdom Panel test, see http://www.wisdompanelpro.com/faq.html.

The Wisdom Panel Professional test has been supplemented for use in Australia to add additional breeds to the breed database (including the Maremma Sheepdog, Koolie, Kelpie, Stumpy Tail Cattle Dog and Tenterfield Terrior) which underpins the test. In addition, work has been done to ensure that apart from these Australia-specific breeds, the genetic signatures of Australian dogs are largely consistent with the signatures of the same breeds in the US and UK which formed the basis of the Wisdom Panel Professional test. The ADVANCE Mixed Breed Identification DNA Test is the result of this work.

 

Q: How accurate is the ADVANCE Mixed Breed Identification DNA Test?

A: The Wisdom Panel Professional test which underpins the ADVANCE Mixed Breed Identification DNA Test (see above) has undergone validation testing in the USA. That testing showed that the Wisdom Panel Professional test has a Sensitivity of 97% and a Positive Predictive Value of 90% in first-generation US crossbred dogs of known parentage. The breeds included in the panel for the Wisdom Panel validation study represented 45% of American Kennel Club registrations. Breeds detected at the lowest level of certainty were not included in the accuracy calculation.

 

Modelling and research regarding the similarity between Australian and US / UK breeds (see above) indicates that the ADVANCE® Mixed Breed Identification DNA Test is likely to have a similar accuracy to the Wisdom Panel Professional test, however validation studies have not yet been performed to test the accuracy of the ADVANCE Mixed Breed Identification DNA Test on Australian dogs.

 

It is also important to note that test accuracy will differ from one dog to the next, and may be higher or lower than average for an individual dog, depending on:

  • the breeds which form part of the mixed-breed dog's heritage;
  • the geographic background of the dog; and
  • the complexity of the dog's "family tree", including whether it is a first, second, third or later generation mixed-breed. For example, ancestors in a dog's lineage at the great-grandparent level and beyond may in some cases be identified only at the lower limits of detection capability, which may introduce inaccuracies.

 

Despite these limitations, we are confident that we offer one of the most sophisticated and accurate tests on the market.

Science Based Questions

 

Q: Is the breed detection analysis at all similar to the kind of DNA analysis people can undergo to find out their deep ancestry? Does mitochondrial DNA or Y-chromosome DNA come into play in the analysis? If so, how? If not, then how are the 321 genetic markers determined?

A: The ADVANCE Mixed Breed Identification DNA Test has some technological similarities to the DNA analysis that people use to determine their deep ancestry but there are major differences in what the different analyses are looking for. The ADVANCE Mixed Breed Identification DNA Test is designed to detect the presence of purebred dogs in the most recent ancestry of a mixed-breed dog (ideally the Great Grandparent, Grandparent or Parental level), whereas most human ancestry tests are designed to detect the proportion of the tested individual that comes from historical racial or defined population groups.

The ADVANCE Mixed Breed Identification DNA Test only uses what are called autosomal DNA markers, chromosomes that contain most of the genetic instructions for every canine's body make up (height, weight, size etc.). There are no markers from either the so-called sex chromosomes (the canine X or Y chromosomes). Mitochondrial DNA, or Y-chromosome DNA testing, is rather different as these parts of the genome are passed on intact from mother to daughter and father to son respectively, but are therefore only representative of either the female or the male lineage. Autosomal DNA is inherited both from the maternal and paternal lineages equally and constantly shuffled by a process called recombination at each successive generation, and therefore is able to give useful information on the breeds found on both sides of a dog's lineage.

To find the genetic markers that performed best at distinguishing between breeds, Mars Veterinary tested over 4,600 SNPs (single nucleotide polymorphisms or genetic markers, where genetic variation has been found between different dogs), from positions across the whole canine Autosomal genome from over 3,200 dogs. To further refine the search, Mars Veterinary determined the best 1,536 genetic variations and ran them against an additional 4,400 dogs from a wide range of breeds. This stage of testing resulted in the selection of the final panel of DNA markers that performed best at distinguishing between breeds, ultimately creating the the ADVANCE Mixed Breed Identification DNA Test genetic database.

Q: Do breed signatures differ from commonly understood notions of recessive and dominant genes? That is, it seems that the presence of a breed signature doesn't necessarily imply a physical appearance?

A: Physical appearance (predominantly determined by genes that influence the development of canine size and body mass, coat length, type and color, skull shape, leg length, ear and tail types), are known to be controlled by a very small number of genes relative to the number of genes contained in the canine genome (~20,000 or so in total). These genes can have both recessive and dominant variants and the variant that is present determines the visible effect on physical traits seen.

The presence of breed signatures does not guarantee that the dog will look like all detected breeds - the wonder of genetic inheritance and can be seen as much in people as in dogs.

The ADVANCE Mixed Breed Identification DNA Test signatures are defined by markers that are consistent with the presence of a particular breed in the background of a tested dog, but were not chosen to specifically cover the genes responsible for specific trait determination from those breeds - many parts of the genome are likely to be unobservable with regard to trait determination. This can happen for any number of trait-determining genes. Therefore, a mixed-breed dog could be a mix of three or four breeds but have few traits evident from one or more of these breeds. There are two good examples of how this can happen. The first is eye color in humans. Brown is dominant over blue and green, and yet, a brown-eyed mother can have a green-eyed son if the dominant brown eye color variant is not passed on. The second, and perhaps best, illustration of the surprising effects you may see when mixing breeds is to study some designer dogs (e.g. puggles, cocker-poos, etc.), which are a custom combination of two different pure breeds. Often these dogs will look quite different to the founder breeds because they are a mixture of two very different sets of genetic backgrounds. Equally many dog breeds still contain a variety of genetic variants for specific trait genes, especially coat color, size and coat type. For example, there are many different forms of Schnauzers such as miniature, standard and giant, and there are many different coat colors and coat types found in the Dachshund breed such as wire-, smooth- and long-haired. Dogs can be many different colors and yet are still classified as the same breed.

 

Q: My dog looks nothing like the breeds detected in the ADVANCE Mixed Breed DNA Identification Test analysis. Can you explain how this can happen?

A: Many parts of the canine genome are likely to be unobservable or hidden with regard to trait determination. This can happen for any number of trait-determining genes. Simply put, a mixed-breed dog could be a mix of 3 or 4 breeds but have few traits evident from one or more of these breeds.

There are two good examples of how this can happen. The first is eye color in humans. Brown is dominant over blue and green, and yet, a brown-eyed mother can have a green-eyed son if the dominant brown eye color variant is not passed on. The second, and perhaps best, illustration of the surprising effects you may see when mixing breeds is to study some designer dogs (e.g. puggles, cocker-poos, etc.), which are a custom combination of two different pure breeds. Often these dogs will look quite different to the founder breeds because they are a mixture of two very different sets of genetic backgrounds. Equally many dog breeds still contain a variety of genetic variants for specific trait genes, especially coat color, size and coat type. For example, there are many different forms of Schnauzers such as miniature, standard and giant, and there are many different coat colors and coat types found in the Dachshund breed such as wire-, smooth- and long-haired. Dogs can be many different colors and yet are still classified as the same breed.

 

Q: Your website says that breed signatures are extremely similar and can be hard to differentiate. Who/what makes the final decision as to which breed is reported? Computer? Human? Combination?

A: All breed determinations are made solely by our proprietary computer algorithm. With each tested dog's DNA, more than 7 million repetitive comparisons are made using a complex statistical algorithm. The algorithm scans the 321 genetic markers collected and looks for matches to breed signatures. The algorithm provides a marker by marker certainty score for each breed match. The computer selects the single best combination of breeds and relative amounts of breeds detected that best match the tested DNA sample from this comparison with our extensive database of purebred ANKC dog breed signatures.

 

Q: Many Australian National Kennel Council (ANKC) breeds are derived from other, older breeds. Would The ADVANCE Mixed Breed Identification DNA Test sometimes mistakenly detect some of the originating breeds instead of the newer ANKC recognized breed?

A: Some breeds are relatively new, created from mixing other breeds together. When this happens, some ancestral similarities may remain in certain chromosomal regions, making it possible to have breeds that have been combined in crosses to ultimately form a new breed could potentially be detected as matches at certain markers that our test uses. If this occurs, this would most likely be reported as trace amounts of the ancestrally related breeds.

 

Q: Of the Australian National Kennel Council (ANKC) breeds not currently being identified and some other breeds not recognized by ANKC (such as Murray River Retriever), would the test identify that the dog has a significant amount of an undetermined breed or would it just not say anything at all?

A: Our test is designed to find the best matches to the 200+ breeds in our database. Occasionally it is possible that no strong breed matches will be made. In this case, no breeds would be reported, which may happen if no breeds are present in the lineage of the dog that The ADVANCE Mixed Breed Identification DNA Test can detect. In terms of breeds not covered by the The ADVANCE Mixed Breed Identification DNA Test, the results will depend upon the genetic relatedness of the tested dog to the breeds available in our database. For example, a Llewellyn Setter (closely related genetically to the English Setter but not covered by our test) might result in a report that contains some amount of English setter.