Genetic Testing in the Horse

Rebecca R Bellone; Felipe Avila

doi:10.1016/j.cveq.2020.03.003

Genetic Testing in the Horse

Vet Clin North Am Equine Pract. 2020 Aug;36(2):211-234. doi: 10.1016/j.cveq.2020.03.003. Epub 2020 Jun 10.

Authors

Rebecca R Bellone¹, Felipe Avila²

Affiliations

¹ Department of Population Health and Reproduction Davis, CA 95616, USA; Veterinary Genetics Laboratory, School of Veterinary Medicine, University of California-Davis, One Shields Avenue, Davis, CA 95616, USA. Electronic address: rbellone@ucdavis.edu.
² Veterinary Genetics Laboratory, School of Veterinary Medicine, University of California-Davis, One Shields Avenue, Davis, CA 95616, USA.

PMID: 32534857
DOI: 10.1016/j.cveq.2020.03.003

Abstract

Genetic testing in horses began in the 1960s, when parentage testing using blood group markers became the standard. In the 1990s, parentage testing shifted from evaluating blood groups to DNA testing. The development of genetics and genomics in both human and veterinarian medicine, along with continued technological advances in the last 2 decades, has helped unravel the causal variants for many horse traits. Genetic testing is also now possible for a variety of phenotypic and disease traits and is used to assist in breeding and clinical management decisions. This article describes the genetic tests that are currently available for horses.

Keywords: Coat color testing; Genetic disease testing; Genetic testing; Genetics; Horses; Parentage testing; Performance testing.

Publication types

Review

MeSH terms

Animals
Breeding / methods
Genetic Testing / veterinary*
Horse Diseases / genetics
Horses / genetics*