The Purebred Dexter Cattle Association of North America
Here's the latest at PDCA
PDCA Annual Membership Meeting
8 November
2:00 PM EST
We are pleased to announce two great speakers.
Kaci Herman from Neogen
Kaci has been around cattle all her life and has applied that passion to helping cattlemen reach their goals through innovative practices and industry expertise. If you have questions regarding genetic testing, you won't want to miss Kaci's presentation
Matthew Miller from Virginia Tech
Matthew is the coach of the Tech livestock judging team. He will be speaking about cattle confirmation and the importance of proper confirmation. If you need to brush up on proper angles you won't want to miss Matthew's presentation.
Every breeder in the PDCA registry has their own unique Herd Prefix.
Every animal in the registry has the Herd Prefix of its breeder included in its name.
A Herd Prefix is typically short, and might include your last name, initials, farm name or an abbreviation of that name. The Herd Prefix can go before or after the individual name of the animal.
Little Farm Lucy
Ace of Clovebrook
Your Herd Prefix should be included in the name of all offspring that you are the breeder of.
If your desired Herd Prefix is already in use; the registrar will contact you with available options.
If you do not list a Herd Prefix when you first join PDCA, the registrar will assign one.
Standard Registration Fee - $ 20
($5 discount for self-print certificate option)
Registration Requirement
Animal to be registered must be an offspring of a registered Sire and registered Dam
Accepted Registries Purebred Dexter Cattle Association
American Dexter Cattle Association
Legacy Dexter Cattle Registry
Canadian Livestock Records Corporation
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The acceptance other foreign registries is at the discretion of the Registrar
Certified Registration Fee - $ 20
($5 discount for self-print certificate option)
Intent of Certified Registration
To encourage genetic testing that will facilitate breeders in making good breeding decisions in order to avoid unexpected complications resulting from unknowingly breeding two PHA positive or Chondro positive animals together
Certified Registration Requirements
Meet Standard Registration requirement
Show proof of Genotyping, Chondro status and PHA status
Ways to provide the proof needed
By testing the animal to be registered for all of the above, or by obligate status: Must be genotyped and parent verified to a tested (or obligate) Sire and Dam
Knowing some of the basics of parentage testing and how it works can help a breeder understand the benefits of testing to make important breeding/management decisions.
The Concept
The concept behind using genetic markers for parentage testing is based on the fact that each animal receives one copy of each gene, called an allele, from each parent. We can genotype an animal to determine what markers they have and compare that to potential parents to determine if those markers are consistent with that individual being a parent of the offspring in question.
Common Misconception
One common misconception of parentage testing is that the test confirms parentage absolutely based on matching DNA of offspring to their parents. Rather, parentage testing is about excluding animals that cannot be the parents of a particular offspring, rather than proving that an animal is the parent. In the simplest terms, we use the genetic markers to exclude animals as a possible parent, leaving those remaining (hopefully only one) as the most likely parent for that offspring.
Ways to improve accuracy
1. Make sure your marker panels are consistent
All of the animals being compared need to be genotyped with the same type of marker panel. Older animals that might have been genotyped on a microsatellite panel might need to be re-genotyped on a SNP panel if the genotypes are needed for a parentage test on a younger animal.
Also, the quantity of different markers shown on a panel can vary, so the higher the quantity of markers being compared the greater chance for accuracy. SNP parentage panels include a large number of markers.
2. It is essential to genotype all possible parents
If an individual that could have been a parent is not included in the comparison, it is possible that parentage may be incorrectly assigned. Ideally collect DNA from all herd sires BEFORE they go out with the cows for the breeding season.
3. Don’t include any animals that couldn’t possibly be the sire or dam of the individual in question due to their location or other factors
Because parentage testing is about excluding animals that could not possibly have been the sire or dam of the individual in question, you risk an inconclusive result if two or more individuals cannot be excluded. This is more likely to occur if the animals are close relatives. Even if you have run parentage panels on all of your herd sires, do not include all of them just because you possess the information.
4. It is harder to resolve parentage when using related sires/animals
Because related animals tend to share the same chromosomes, and thus have the same genotype at genetic marker loci, it is harder to resolve parentage when potential sires are related. This may be especially important to remember when using related sires in a multi-sire pasture if your intention is to parent-verify the calves. Because their genotypes are often similar, it becomes more difficult to exclude close relatives as potential sires, especially in the absence of dam genotypes.
References:
International Society for Animal Genetics. (2012). Guidelines for cattle parentage verification based on SNP markers. http://www.isag.us/Docs/Guideline-for-cattle-SNP-use-for-parentage-2012.pdf. Accessed 12/16/2016.
Transfer Fee - $20
Seller fills out the buyer information on the back of the registration certificate. Be sure to sign and date it.
Seller can submit an online transfer to buyer of record. If buyer is making the transfer, a photo or PDF of the back of the registration certificate must be provided showing the sellers signature and date off transfer.
Notifications are important and... they're FREE
Provides an accurate fertility history of a Dam showing all her purebred offspring, not just her registered offspring
Keeps the Registry up to date helping to prevent inaccurate/fraudulent registrations
Removes your name as the recorded owner of an animal
Maybe you sold an animal without submitting a Transfer and the buyer never bothered to transfer it into their name... YOU are still the recorded owner. A Termination of Ownership removes your name (and potential liability) as the recorded owner