Rabbit genetic testing interest?

[eco2pia]

I wonder how many people would be interested in rabbit genetic testing?

If we were interested, what would be the most important things to screen for?

Hidden recessive color genes like REW?

Certain genetic diseases? Which ones?

Something else?

What would people pay for this service? PCR testing for single genes is fairly simple. I could do it in my garage simple (getting the degree that gave me the skills and buying the equipment to do the tests is neither cheap or simple, but since I happwn to have the skills... How feasible is buying the equipment?)

Not all inherited traits are controlled by one gene tho. From a work/cost basis it would make sense to charge by the gene.

Does any one know of a service like this for rabbits?

 

[RustySssunflower]

Would be hella awesome

 

[BuffBrahmaBantam]

Wow. That would be a great service it seems. Do you have any idea what traits could be screened for? I know very little about this topic but am intrigued.

 

[user 8990]

Oh yes!

 

[eco2pia]

I will read up on it and get back to this thread. I expect easy traits like REW, which are largely controlled by a single gene. Not sure about the rest, I will take a look and see what the lab community has for tools.

 

[Keag]

Check out UC Davis. They do a great number of tests. Disease & color. There is also Paw print which does testing as well. See what they charge & go from there.

 

[BuffBrahmaBantam]

I just checked out both sites and neither mentions rabbit testing, unless I missed it? Paw Print only lists dogs, and UC Davis has cattle, horse, cat, dog, sheep, pig, donkey - no rabbit tests that I can see. Link: Find Tests By Species | Veterinary Genetics Laboratory

 

[Keag]

Sorry, I did not explain that none do rabbits. It was a price comparison as to what they charge to what you could or should charge if people were interested.

 

[judymac]

Yes! I have micron testing done on my rabbit's fiber for an objective scientific analysis, it would be fabulous to be able to test for color/parentage as well. Sometimes you end up with a litter that just doesn't make sense genetically (like black agouti (chestnut) out of lynx and chocolate agouti, both of which are recessive chocolate, not dominant black. How great it would be to be able to test for the color alleles, and be sure the stock isn't carrying an unwanted recessive.

Sure wish there was a way to test for some of the less common things, like steel E(S) and harlequin e(j), Vienna vv, Silvering si, chinchilla c(chd) and sable c(chl) as well as cc albino REW, as all of these working in the background as recessives can result in faulted or disqualified colors. There are so many variables than mask as self black, like supersteel, seal, or self chin. Wouldn't it be great to be able to sort out that conundrum?

Will there ever be a way to tell why wild gray agoutis (which are now lumped in with chestnut agouti even though they have mostly steel blue fiber with chestnut tips, no real fawn middle band) are missing the fawn band? Is there a genetic that pushes the undercolor up, or the fawn off? What else could this genetic (whatever it is) affect?

Why do some rabbits have mostly white hair, with only a tip of color (snowballs)? What genetic does that? Is it a relic from red/fawn breeding, that often have white bases to their hairshaft? As I raise angoras, I would love a way to figure out what causes this and test for it (1/2-1" of color on a 5" hairshaft, in a breed that should have dark undercolor, not white).

 

[judymac]

Has there been any progress, are we any closer to rabbit DNA testing? I see from RabGTD: a comprehensive database of rabbit genome and transcriptome that there is a rabbit genome database.

 

[eco2pia]

I abandoned this in favor of sorting out a number of personal problems, lol. Maybe I should revisit this as an "alternative way to make a profit with rabbits"

 

[eco2pia]

I am just going to leave this here for future reference.... Rabbit Genetic Resources Can Provide Several Animal Models to Explain at the Genetic Level the Diversity of Morphological and Physiological Relevant Traits

screenshot of partial "table1"

 

[Secuono]

Hmm. Parentage testing would be nice. Not breed ID, but confirming sire of kit. I do this with sheep if I have a ram escape. Would be nice to have when you breed to a backup buck and won't be able to tell kits apart by other means.

 

[kusanar314]

I abandoned this in favor of sorting out a number of personal problems, lol. Maybe I should revisit this as an "alternative way to make a profit with rabbits"

I have a VERY basic idea of how this works. If you just needed someone to help dig through mass data to figure out what changes what spot I would be glad to help with that part.

 

[eco2pia]

Hmm. Parentage testing would be nice. Not breed ID, but confirming sire of kit. I do this with sheep if I have a ram escape. Would be nice to have when you breed to a backup buck and won't be able to tell kits apart by other means.

I dunno if I could garage-band style sequence a rabbit to do a parentage test--that tech is still a little more expensive. Pretty sure I could check for specific genes, and start up on that would be a few thousand dollars. Maybe I could bootstrap up to parentage testing?

 

[eco2pia]

I have a VERY basic idea of how this works. If you just needed someone to help dig through mass data to figure out what changes what spot I would be glad to help with that part.

I was thinking I would need to find specific primers that would allow recessive genes of interest to be identified. Like maybe wideband, steel, albino, harlequin or Vienna.

Primers are cheap, a PCR machine is within reach ($1500 used), a gel tank and reagents are cheap, I have the skills to do it safely...I can design primers pretty well if I can find a published full sequence for the gene variant of interest. That is the research I have not had time to do. I need to look at the genes someone would be interested in paying for, and I would need to find out which genes can be PCR tested, and I strongly suspect there is a whole list out there but I have not had time to dig for it.

I could not afford the equipment to identify single nucleotide polymorphisms though. It would only work for genes that have a significant difference between the dominant and recessive allele.

 

[eco2pia]

Haha, I could probably get a start-up grant to do this stuff if I got serious about building a company about it.

 

[Secuono]

I dunno if I could garage-band style sequence a rabbit to do a parentage test--that tech is still a little more expensive. Pretty sure I could check for specific genes, and start up on that would be a few thousand dollars. Maybe I could bootstrap up to parentage testing?

Oh!
Are sheep color genetics possible for you to...uh, idk the proper terminology would be. Test, decipher?
If so, there's a decent sized group of Babydoll Southdown sheep people that would be interested! As well as other breeds.

 

[eco2pia]

Oh!
Are sheep color genetics possible for you to...uh, idk the proper terminology would be. Test, decipher?
If so, there's a decent sized group of Babydoll Southdown sheep people that would be interested! As well as other breeds.

I don't know, I would have to look to see what resources are on sheep genetics. I will say I am jealous of your southdown babydolls! I don't have space for sheep but I am hoping to get a small pygora goat in fall to keep a mini dairy goat company.

 

[ohiogoatgirl]

Yes sheep people would definitely be interested in genetic testing for color/pattern!