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DogWellNet Digest: Issue #31 - 26 June 2020
Dave St. Louis posted a article in DogWellNet.com Digest
News & Highlights 'Pandemic Puppies' and COVID-19: How to Navigate This Complex Issue Make a Donation Stay Informed! -
DogWellNet.com Digest: Issue #4 - 15 November 2016
Dave St. Louis posted a article in DogWellNet.com Digest
In This Issue: News & Highlights Spotlight Helpful Hint Stay Informed -
HGTD, and IPFD, were thrilled to be able to send our very best wishes and acknowledgements to Prof Frank Nicholas, on the 25th Anniversary of the Online Mendelian Inheritance in Animals (OMIA) resource. (see Brenda's Blog) Collaboration with, and integration of OMIA's information is vital for a lot of what HGTD is able to do - and fundamental to animal genetics researchers the world over. OMIA is a catalogue/compendium of inherited disorders, other (single-locus) traits, and genes in 251 animal species. OMIA is a great example of collaboration in action - authored by Professor Frank Nicholas of the University of Sydney, Australia, but with expert input and help from many people over the years. For HGTD, it has provided a standardized, unique identifier number for the hundreds of phenes we list on the database, as well as additional information curated by Prof Nicholas and his contributors over the years. The OMIA number is something that can be recognized by genetic researchers across all countries, as a universal reference. It is a resource used by so many HGTD stakeholders, and accepted as something that just... feels like it has always existed. While it is hard to imagine creating HGTD and other resources without OMIA in place, it is easy to take fundamental resources like OMIA for granted that they will exist forever, always expanding, and up to date, without thinking about the challenges required to create them, and the perseverance to keep them going through the years. This concept was in my mind this week as I tackled adding in dozens of new breed-specific research publications and references, as well as updating OMIA references to phenes in the HGTD database. As an integral part of HGTD's principle of transparency in reporting, providing up to date breed-specific and breed-relevant publications from peer-reviewed journals, as well as additional input from geneticists and researchers is a critical, but also a challenging and time-consuming aspect of maintaining the HGTD databases. It requires regular review of OMIA, as new OMIA numbers are generated for new canine single-locus traits, collaboration with researchers who can provide important journal references, and the time and expertise to write and reference technically/clinically accurate phene descriptions, with language and wording that is accessible and clear to a wide audience. This is part of why it was so important from the beginning of the Phenes database development, that we worked to include gene and mutation information for each phene, at a breed-specific as well as testing level. And, why we offer 2 descriptions for as many phenes as possible: a more technical/clinical description for our veterinary and research users, as well as a more real-life experience summary for dog owners and breeders. It might be us who are putting this information in place, but it is only with the collaboration, and expert input from researchers and experts that we are able to have such a robust and responsive resource. Thinking back to our friends at OMIA, I wonder (hope), that IPFD and the HGTD databases will in time be seen as a standard resource and reference for our diverse community, and be celebrating such an auspicious anniversary as OMIA, in the future. With continued thanks, and appreciation to: (puppy photo thanks to Mateja Lemic via Pexels) -
News & Highlights 2019 IPFD Annual Report: A Growing Voice Make a Donation Stay Informed! -
We get questions about how we ensure the quality of the information available on HGTD. It can actually be very challenging, and we rely on having good processes, and collaboration when developing content. To meet the IPFD principle of transparency, we are starting a series of blogs to describe how we manage this resource. We hope to then provide a regular news feed on HGTD developments and changes, to give you all an insight into this work. To get started, here is a little insight into running and maintaining HGTD. How do new genetic test providers (GTPs) join? GTPs reach HGTD as part of the wider IPFD network, research conference outreach, and direct contact. Leadership Sponsors, Sponsors and Participants include commercial providers, non-profits, and large and smaller research groups. Donations from our participants and sponsors to help off-set some of the running costs and development of HGTD. All data received is checked for accuracy, and legitimacy. GTPs who offer ISAG, or other accreditation are checked. All testing information is reviewed to standardize nomenclature and catch any errors or mis-translations. Regular reviews of all databases (GTP, Tests, and Phenes) ensure changes in the industry or emerging research is captured, and disseminated. Quick, and accurate publication is our goal. We aim to have new GTP information, and updates added within 48 hours, but this is often much faster. Publication allows for peer-review, and is key to an open and transparent system. What does the general running work look like? As our GTPs are international, we harmonize across different languages, nomenclature, and national/regional accreditations. We also collaborate with groups such as OMIA and ISAG to improve consistency and harmonization across the industry. At any given time, we are the caretakers of information on dozens of GTPs, hundreds of phenes, and thousands of lines of associated data. All of which have to be checked against independent sources, and regularly reviewed to reflect the fast-paced changes in the genetic testing world. What if I want to help? Use HGTD. The most important way to help is to use HGTD, and tell your friends about how helpful you find it. If we can improve it, let us know. Recommend, Donate! If you have a favorite GTP and they aren’t participating, get in contact with us to help us encourage them to become a part of HGTD. If you have the ability to donate, even a small amount, you can choose to direct it towards IPFD, or directly to HGTD. Either way, you will be supporting us in building resources to improve dog health and welfare. Be part of our Collaboration Community. You can send questions about tests, research papers, experience that your breed club has had, or other feedback to us. We work hard to respond quickly, and while we can’t include everything, we always aim to integrate robust new information. Further information/References: Sponsors, Participant, and databases can be viewed in the Genetic Testing section of IPFD: https://dogwellnet.com/ctp/
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Our People - IPFD Board, CEO, CFO and Consultants
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IPFD is a growing voice for dog health, well-being and welfare... and human-dog interactions.
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Is COVID-time the Right Time to Kon Mari Your Genetic Testing Plans?
Aimee Llewellyn-Zaidi posted a blog entry in Ask Aimee
Is COVID-time the Right Time to Kon Mari Your Genetic Testing Plans? a blog by Aimee Llewellyn-Zaidi, MSc; Project Director of the IPFD Harmonization of Genetic Testing for Dogs (HGTD) initiative. “People around the world have been drawn to this philosophy not only due to its effectiveness, but also because it places great importance on being mindful, introspective and forward-looking.” -Marie Kondo, Founder of the Kon Mari method. If you’ve already, like so many of us, used the Kon Mari de-cluttering method of “sparking joy” and being “mindful, introspective, and forward-looking” in cleaning out your garage, re-organizing your closets, and finally hanging those shelves, then it is no surprise you might be feeling like your breeding plans could do with a little refresh and reorganize. Sometimes in life, it is really valuable to assess our habits and old ways to see if they still “spark joy” or in this case, are still working effectively to achieve breeding goals. With many breeder organizations encouraging caution when planning litters, or recommending delaying mating plans, (click here) this could be the perfect time to reflect on dog breeding, and be mindful, introspective, and forward-looking with genetic testing! Being Mindful: Identifying what you want to achieve with genetic testing is critical in ensuring that the tests you use are fit for your purpose, and that you are making informed breeding decisions. There are a number of potential goals: confirming a litter’s parentage, using disease/trait test results to guide breeding plans to reduce risks or promote desirable characteristics, or providing a genetic permanent identification for your breeding dogs or puppies. Genetic tests fall into a few different types. For breeders, you might mainly be interested in parentage testing (providing confirmation of a puppy’s parents), permanent identification (a panel of markers that provide a unique genetic “fingerprint” that cannot be removed), and disease/trait tests (individual tests, or packages of tests that give risk or inheritance information on a wide-variety of inherited diseases and traits, such as coat type or color.) There are also genetic tests that are diagnostic or used to assess clinical risks, and increasingly, tests that investigate breed diversity or breed determination. What types of tests you use is determined by what your goals are – it is easy to confuse testing options, and you don’t want to order a parentage test thinking you’re getting a permanent ID, or health information. If you have a number of goals, many genetic test providers offer packages of tests, or reduced costs when purchasing multiple tests and test-types. When choosing disease or trait tests for your breed, you can start by searching the breed-specific tests listed on HGTD. The HGTD project has recently launched Breed Relevance Ratings (BRR) as a guide to what research and evidence (or not) supports available breed-specific tests. BRR uses a “traffic light” system to indicate what we currently know about a specific test for a specific breed. You can use this information in a number of ways, but it is useful when assessing how well-understood a specific disease test might be in your breed. These ratings are dynamic, and will change over time as more information becomes available. As HGTD also provides information on each disease/trait test, you can see the original research for many tests, and use this in conjunction with any information from your test providers to better interpret and understand test results. This is especially valuable when balancing a number of different test results in your dogs, with other breeding considerations. As more breed-specific tests become available, more dogs will of course have a variety low/medium and high-risk results. There is no such thing as a genetically “perfect” dog! We have recently heard from a number of kennel clubs who are either already starting to incorporate parentage testing and genetic permanent identification into their databases, or making plans for this in the future. It can be really reassuring to both breeders and pet homes to have genetic confirmation of parentage – and if you have a genetic permanent identification, it can’t get “lost”, be removed, or be changed. When choosing a parentage or ID test, look for ISAG accreditation to ensure that your test results are interpretable internationally. The ISAG panel used by many GTPs is considered a “gold standard.” They have recently released a new ISAG 2020 panel for SNP (single-nucleotide polymorphism) testing, in addition to the 2004, and 2006 STR (short-tandem repeat/microsatellite) panels. Once you’ve decided on your goals, and what test(s) you might want to achieve them, who is your best test provider? The Search by GTP/Lab option lets you review test providers, including what tests they offer, any accreditation, and special expertise they have. Many genetic test providers are able to perform and provide test results completely remotely and only require you to use a home kit to test your dogs. Keep in mind that during the COVID-19 pandemic that any tests that require a blood sample, or being sampled by a veterinary professional may not be recommended at this time. Other considerations for choosing a test provider might be which GTPs are “accepted” by your kennel club, what reports look like and any after-care, and what types of tests are offered. (click here) Genetic test providers are increasingly offering breed-specific “panel” tests, which can be really cost effective. It is worth checking to ensure the panel they are offering includes all the tests you’re interested in, or be ready to buy additional tests. In addition, it is recommended that if you are using a panel test, you take your time when reading breed-specific reports. Some panel test providers like to provide all results, irrespective if the test is yet known to be breed-relevant, and others prefer to report only results that are known or suspected to be relevant. Responsible genetic test providers have clear risk information in their reports, whichever style they use. There is a risk that making breeding decisions based on results from irrelevant tests (e.g. where the mutation in your breed has no known correlation with disease risk) could lead to an unnecessary reduction in genetic diversity, false-confidence in disease risk reduction, or welfare issues if a dog’s results are mis-interpreted as a diagnosis for a disease they will never have symptoms of. Introspective/Self-reflective: what to do when you get your test results? Unless you are only interested in parentage or permanent ID, you will almost certainly have more than one genetic disease/trait result to consider in your breeding plans. You will also have other aims outside of genetic testing such as conformation, behavior, and clinical test results, as well as, perhaps the health and longevity of dogs related to the breeding pair. There are many resources that can provide a wide-variety of breeding advice for your breed. (click here) It can be helpful to divide the genetic test information on the dam and sire into a number of categories – what test results do I have? Which are high, medium or low risk? Any that are no risk at all? And, with what I know about the disease test results, how important are they to the health and welfare of my dogs when balanced against other concerns in my breed? Part of what makes genetic tests such a valuable tool, is that you are able to make fairly confident decisions when it comes to paring dogs to reduce or eliminate disease risk, i.e. it may be strongest for rejecting certain pairings. In other words, after eliminating certain potential mates due to genetic incompatibility, you can go on to look at the pros/cons, benefits and risks of the options remaining. Even if genetic testing offers some solid information, do not get lulled into making false assumptions about the over-all suitability of mating pairs or the health of a dog or its progeny (see: Health tested does not mean healthy). Genetic testing is a core breeding tool, but breeders must not get complacent or allow the popularity, simplicity and ‘high science’ of using ‘DNA’ results to distract them from tackling the greater challenges of informed breeding decisions, e.g. prioritizing health, conformation or behavioral traits that don’t come with genetic tests. No one analytic tool or test can replace the broad knowledge and experience that is needed in order to adequately consider the big picture for breeding decisions. Take time to reflect back to your original goals, with your gained insight into the tests and results…“I want to eliminate this mutation from my breeding plans, but doing it slowly will be better for my breed as a whole” vs “this is a really rare disease with high welfare-impact, so trying to get it out of the breeding population quickly is important” vs “I have 20 important considerations, and this genetic test is only one of them.” This is a really useful way to keep your eye on the end-goals, use genetic tests to help hone your breeding plans, and focus your energy. Forward looking Genetic testing technology, including what tests are available and advances in interpretation and advice (as well as confusion!) are only going to increase over time. Most kennel and breed clubs are already including genetic test results in breed records to some extent , and as the genetic technology advances and becomes more accessible, the future is likely to include genetic testing as standard practice, especially when it comes to registration – with parentage testing, and/or health testing regulations. Being informed now will help you to be prepared for the future, and improve your breeding plans moving forward. As a final note, a key part of the Kon Mari method of organizing includes the concept of “thank you, and good bye.” This philosophy allows you to reflect on what worked in the past, be okay with it, and also say good bye to move onto better things for your future. This is the same in dog breeding – you might have tried something in the past that doesn’t work now, or you might have had something that worked okay but could be better. Or you may have old habits and attitudes that could be dropped. Say goodbye, and move on. Learn the lessons from the past experiences, but only take with you when moving into the future, what is right for you and your breeding strategies now and moving forward. References: Kondo, Marie. The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing -
IPFD is truly a "people driven" service organization. We allocate the bulk of our financial resources to maintain a small but dedicated team of consultants to manage our modest resources and facilitate the activities of our stakeholders, with the aim of achieving our collective goals. Your generous donation to support IPFD and its programs helps ensure our long-term sustainability and supports ongoing efforts to create an enduring global collaboration that enhances the health, well-being, and welfare of all dogs worldwide. By supporting the Harmonization of Genetic Testing for Dogs initiative you can help us improve standardization of, and access to, robust genetic testing to support health improvements and a sustainable future for healthy dogs. -
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IPFD's HGTD Project Director, Aimee Llewellyn-Zaide provides an overview of the Harmonization of Genetic Testing for Dogs initiative - challenges and aims of providing quality genetic testing information to the dog community. -
All donations are handled via PayPal. Make a donation to support IPFD and its programs or... Make a donation to support the Harmonization of Genetic Testing for Dogs initiative -
Dog Health Workshop #4 - 2019
Ann Milligan posted a article in IPFD International Dog Health Workshop #4
♦ REGISTRATION CLOSED ♦ Organized by the International Partnership for Dogs (IPFD) and The Kennel Club, in cooperation with other partners. Pre-Meeting Resources - DogWellNet - 4th DHW Overview Dates: Thursday May 30th - Saturday, June 1st, 2019 Venue: De Vere Beaumont Estate, Windsor, UK Location: ~ 6 miles from Heathrow Airport. -
Click below to view the article (PDF): Moving from information and collaboration to action - report from the 3rd International Dog Health Workshop - Paris in April 2017 Dan G. O’Neill1*, Sylvia F. A. Keijser2, Åke Hedhammar3, Caroline Kisko4, Gregoire Leroy5,6, Aimée Llewellyn-Zaidi7, Sofia Malm8, Patricia N. Olson9, Rowena M. A. Packer10, Jean Francois Rousselot11, Ian J. Seath12, Jason W. Stull13 and Brenda N. Bonnett7,14 -
IPFD Harmonization of Genetic Testing for Dogs: Press Release
Brenda Bonnett posted a article in IPFD News
NOTE: Since this press release, as of April 2018, Harmonization of Genetic Testing for Dogs is online. Please check it out! The International Partnership for Dogs (IPFD) announces the “Harmonization of Genetic Testing for Dogs” initiative: to support the appropriate selection and use of DNA testing in dog health and breeding decisions The ever-increasing emergence of new canine DNA tests and testing laboratories has made choosing quality DNA testing providers and the right DNA tests for health and breeding decisions increasingly challenging for many owners, breeders and veterinarians. Working with a wide-spectrum of stakeholders in dog health, the International Partnership for Dogs (IPFD) "Harmonization of Genetic Testing for Dogs" initiative will provide practical support to address these challenges. -
DogWellNet.com Digest: Issue #14 - 23 January 2018
Dave St. Louis posted a article in DogWellNet.com Digest
In This Issue: News & Highlights A Look Ahead: IPFD and DogWellNet.com in 2018 Helpful Hint Stay Informed! -
DogWellNet.com Digest: Issue #12 - 2 November 2017
Dave St. Louis posted a article in DogWellNet.com Digest
In This Issue: News & Highlights NEW! DogWellNet.com Sitemap Helpful Hint Stay Informed! -
DogWellNet.com Digest: Issue #13 - 15 December 2017
Dave St. Louis posted a article in DogWellNet.com Digest
Happy Holidays from the International Partnership for Dogs and DogWellNet.com! In This Issue: Hold the Date: 4th International Dog Health Workshop News & Highlights Moving from information and collaboration to action: Report from the 3rd International Dog Health Workshop Stay Informed! -
3rd Workshop of the International Partnership for Dogs (IPFD): Working together to improve the health of pedigree dogs See the F.C.I. newsletter at the link above or read it below... -
DogWellNet.com Digest: Issue #11 - 26 September 2017
Dave St. Louis posted a article in DogWellNet.com Digest
In This Issue: News & Highlights UK Owner Survey - The Kennel Club registered dogs: Newly published research Stay Informed! -
DogWellNet.com Digest: Issue #6 - 9 March 2017
Dave St. Louis posted a article in DogWellNet.com Digest
In This Issue: News & Highlights 3rd International Dog Health Workshop - There's still time to join us in Paris! Stay Informed -
DogWellNet.com Digest: Issue #5 - 8 February 2017
Dave St. Louis posted a article in DogWellNet.com Digest
In This Issue: News & Highlights Spotlight Stay Informed
