Tuesday 8 May 2012
Jockeying for Genetic Advantage: DNA Analysis to Evaluate Thoroughbreds
ScienceDaily (May 2, 2012) — When you buy a racehorse, you pays your money and you takes your chances. Top yearlings at Keeneland's 2011 Thoroughbred auction, for instance, averaged nearly $350,000 and hadn't yet raced a step. Odds are that some of them never will. Now, thanks to a Binghamton University biologist, it's possible to boost the odds of getting a winner with a simple genetic test.
ThoroughGen, founded by Steven Tammariello, associate professor of biological sciences, performs genetic testing on horses. The company offers a basic three-gene test for Thoroughbreds at a cost of $175. It screens for one gene that is vital to energy production and two tied to muscle function. Energy production is linked to stamina, muscle twitch to speed. But according to Tammariello, this is just the tip of the iceberg, adding that the horse has some 27,000 genes.
Tammariello carts a portable testing device to sales. All he needs is one strand of hair from the horse's mane and if he receives a sample by 4 p.m., he can give clients results the next morning. But the field is so new that it's still fighting pockets of resistance. Still, for many breeders in the Thoroughbred industry, genetic testing is the future. And it's the future for other breeds of horses as well, not just the racers.
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