What if you could test your future foal to see if it had a genetic disorder or find out what sex it would be within days of breeding your mare? Texas A&M University researchers have announced the availability of a test that can determine fetal sex or the presence of a genetic disorder within days of conception.

"This clinical method for testing embryos almost immediately after breeding, a process called preimplantation genetic diagnosis, or PGD, will help eliminate the occurrence of some devastating genetic diseases," explained lead researcher Katrin Hinrichs, DVM, PhD, a professor in the Department of Veterinary Physiology and Pharmacology. "These include diseases found in American Quarter Horses, such as hereditary equine regional dermal asthenia (HERDA), glycogen branching enzyme deficiency, and hyperkalemic periodic paralysis (HYPP), as well as severe combined immunodeficiency disorder and cerebellar abiotrophy, which have plagued Arabians."

With this test the veterinarian "flushes" the fertilized embryo from the mare approximately seven days post-breeding (prior to the embryo implanting in the uterine wall, as the name suggests). After removing a few cells from the area of the embryo that becomes the placenta and testing them for genetic disorders, the practitioner transfers the embryo into a recipient mare.

"Our studies show that the embryos are viable after biopsy and provide normal pregnancy rates after transfer and that 100% (9/9) of mares that received transfers of biopsied embryos had uneventful pregnancies that resulted in the birth of healthy foals," Hinrichs said