Animal Genetics Testing Lab Celebrates 25th Anniversary

This year the University of Kentucky’s Animal Genetics Testing & Research Laboratory (AGTRL) will celebrate 25 years of offering a variety of genetic testing services to horse owners and breed registries. Established in 1986 and formerly known as the Parentage Testing Laboratory, the AGTRL is located in the Gluck Equine Research Center after being housed in the Dimmock Animal Pathology building at
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This year the University of Kentucky’s Animal Genetics Testing & Research Laboratory (AGTRL) will celebrate 25 years of offering a variety of genetic testing services to horse owners and breed registries.

Established in 1986 and formerly known as the Parentage Testing Laboratory, the AGTRL is located in the Gluck Equine Research Center after being housed in the Dimmock Animal Pathology building at UK until 2009. Available genetic tests include traditional blood typing, DNA typing, parentage analysis, and color gene testing. The lab further provides an opportunity for horse owners to investigate their horses’ DNA and offers a range of tests to the public.

The AGTRL, under the leadership of director Kathy Graves, PhD, is one of three laboratories associated with public universities in the United States. The other two are at the University of California, Davis, and Texas A&M University.

The AGTRL was in development before DNA tests were even widely used. The Department of Veterinary Science had begun regularly conducting blood type testing to verify parentage for Standardbred registrations across the country when scientists became aware of a condition occurring in about 2% of Standardbreds called neonatal isoerythrolysis (which occurs in healthy foals and results in a conflict between the foal and the antibodies found in its mother’s milk, which causes a destruction of the foal’s red blood cells)

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