GENOTYPING (LOVEBIRD PARENTAGE TEST)
Laboratorio de aves is the only lab in world that is providing Lovebird Parentage Testing.
DNA gives your birds a unique and ineffaceable genetic fingerprint. It is inherited from their parents and always unique to any individual. In DNA there are very distinctive sequences that are tandemly repeated throughout the genome. These are called Tandem Repeats. It can be of different types deepening of the repeat sequence and nature of repeat: Short Tandem Repeats (STR), Variable number Tandem repeats (VNTR) etc.
These repeat sequences act as DNA fingerprinting markers. These are inherited by chicks from there parents in a very unique fashion that makes him/her different from others by millions of times.
Each VNTR/STR marker is made by inheritance of 50% from each parent and can be compared to parents’ markers to establish a parenting relationship.
By using the unique inherited information, we are able to establish paternity relationships between your bird and possible parents.
Plumage colour is the main selection criterion for breeders and buyers. Most of the 30 observed colour variations are inherited as autosomal or sex-linked recessive traits but the causative mutations associated with these variations have not yet been identified (Van den Abeele, 2016; van der Zwan et al., 2019). Due to the inheritance patterns of these traits, breeders make use of pedigree data to predict the heterozygous genotype for a specific colour. Therefore, accurate and complete pedigree records are of utmost importance to select offspring. Despite the dependency on pedigree data, no SNP-based, genus-specific parentage verification test is available for Agapornis or for any parrot species. As a result, many fraudulent transactions take place as sellers know there is no molecular test available to verify either the pedigree or the colour genotype of a chick.
- These tests can be used to record and store data about our bird for identification in case of theft
- Verification of relationship in situations of buying and selling of expensive mutations
- To confirm the relationship to a possible parent if you have mixed the chicks from more than two parents and forget to make proper record during fostering. In this case one of chick may belong or split of an expensive mutation/trait.
van der Zwan H, van der Sluis R. Polly Wants a Genome: The Lack of Genetic Testing for Pet Parrot Species. Genes (Basel). 2021 Jul 20;12(7):1097. doi: 10.3390/genes12071097. PMID: 34356113; PMCID: PMC8307168.
Required Samples 4-6 Larger feathers from each individual bird Please must send the filled form of Lovebird Parentage testing record sheet (dwonload)
Case1:
- Suspected Father: Name, ring ID
- Suspected Mother: Name, ring ID
- Chick: Name ring ID
Case2:
- Suspected Father: Name, ring ID
- Suspected Mother: Name, ring ID
- Chick:Name ring ID