A Test To End Diseases

Never mind having a DNA test for your family tree — you can even buy a kit to check your dog’s lineage now, says David Tomlinson

- David Tomlinson

You might be surprised to know that DNA testing for dogs has become big business — a quick search online will reveal a dozen or so companies that will be delighted to sell you a DNA testing kit.

Apparently, a simple mouth swab is all you need to discover your dog’s ancestry, because these companies claim that they can tell what mixture of breeds your dog is with remarkable accuracy. Wisdom Panel, for example, claims to be the world’s leading canine genetics company and to have tested 1.5million dogs. It also has what it says is the world’s largest breed database, with identification for 350 breeds, types and varieties.

A Wisdom Panel testing kit costs an affordable £75. Send your dog’s swab sample back to the company and it then uses a “canine Illumina Infinium chip created specifically for the tests. These chips are processed and analysed at Eurofins Genomics laboratories, the world’s largest genomics testing facility and a member of Eurofins Scientific, the global leader in bio-analysis.”

So much information blinded me with science and I was forced to go back to the beginning.

“The Kennel Club is committed to advancing DNA disease-testing of dogs”

To learn more about DNA — which is short for deoxyribonucleic acid —I did the simple thing and checked it out online, but I can’t pretend that I understood much of what I read, as it is a hugely complex subject.