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The Animal Health Trust UK stores DNA from various breeds for
future research purposes and they have agreed to store DNA of the
Afghan Hound, samples are accepted by the AHT from
anywhere in the world and are not just limited to UK dogs. We would
like to extend our thanks to the AHT for coming up with this amazing
offer and we are well on the way with collecting funds for the
Afghan Hound
Health Fund, an online auction wll be coming soon and please feel
free to suggest any other fundraising events as it appears that the
Kennel Club will donate quite a high percentage of funds if we can
show we are serious in helping with the funding of DNA health
research and start to raise money, and who knows it may not even too
far in the distant future when they can start working and coming up
with specific DNA health tests for afghan hounds
The AHT request a donation of 5 UK pounds per swab kit, there
will be a small charge for shipping if you wish to have swab kits
posted. The AHT would prefer to have the swab kits distributed
in bulk, and have asked if we can take on this task therefore we
have made an intitial order of 40 swab kits but we think they will
be in high demand, if anyone would like to pre-order a swab kit
ir request further details please contact
Pam Croft Email:
ahi@sky.com or Telephone 01424 427908 or Muriel
Boydell 01424 420595
warrenoak@yahoo.co.uk
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Details provided by Cathryn Mellersh
Phd AHT We do store DNA
from various breeds now, for future research purposes, and we would be happy
to do that for the Afghan Hound.
We can store DNA collected either as blood samples (collected from UK dogs
only when the dog is having blood drawn for a veterinary purpose) or from
cheek swabs. The amount of DNA we can extract from cheek swabs is usually
sufficient for our purposes, providing owners follow the instructions we
provide.
We can provide cheek swab kits - these include 4 cheek swabs, full
instructions an a submission form that each owner must sign giving the AHT
permission to use the sample in future research. The submission form
details the information we need to collect for each dog sampled. Brief
details will be asked on the form or any current conditions
Because we currently do not have any funds in place to cover our costs we
would ask for a donation of 5 UK Pounds per swab kit. We can supply swab kits to
individuals, or (our preference) to a willing volunteer from the Afghan
community who would be happy to give out the kits. The AHI have volunteered
and been accepted as the point of contact for co-ordinating the supply and
return of the supply kits to the AHT
Upon receipt of each sample we will log the details of each dog into our
database, and will store the DNA in our freezers.
Each quarter, upon request, I will provide a brief progress report, in terms
of the number of
samples we have received and any research being carried, to anybody who
requests a copy.
If, at any time in the future, we were in a position to initiate a research
project using the samples we had collected we would need to seek additional
funds to cover that research - the £5 donation requested for each swab kit
covers only the logging of sample details and the sample storage |
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Why your dogs DNA is
needed
Until the Animal Heath Trust have a large supply of DNA
from Afghan Hounds, NO research can be made into developing any DNA
tests for our breed
The more DNA samples submitted to the AHT, the sooner they will be able to
undertake research into any health conditions in the breed
To give you an idea of the amount of samples required, the AHT informed us
that they have been collecting samples for storage for another breed and now
have about 14,000 samples, sometimes batches of 200 arriving in one day!
Discussions with the AHT about Afghan DNA storage were well under way before
'that' TV program and with UK Kennel Club now clamping down on breeders to
safeguard the health of pedigree dogs therefore its even more important that
we should all be doing something about dogs health
The AHT is a non-profit making organisation, and tests are priced
competitively to cover costs - any surplus is re-invested in their research
programme into animal disease and welfare. An example of costs for PRA
tests in dachshunds recently developed by the AHT, initially the charge was
120 UK pounds but the more samples tested the more the cost reduces at the
present time it is now 50 UK pounds
You will find details about the AHT Genetics research program on their
website
Animal Health Trust
NOTE: Any samples that you send will be handled in strictest confidence by
the AHT
Email ahi@sky.com |
(TM)