04 Aug Histio Testing 2019 Championship Show
The Club is pleased to announce that we are able to offer reduced cost blood sampling for the SH test at the 2019 Championship Show at Stoneleigh on September 21st.
Most members will be aware that the club’s Code of Ethics recommends that breeding stock is screened using the Systemic Histiocytosis test developed by the University of Rennes in conjunction with the French Breed Club and provided by French genetics company Antagene.
We have to sincerely thank prospective Bernese owner Dr Rich Irvine BVSc MRCVS who is the veterinary surgeon offering his services completely free of charge to facilitate this. Furthermore he has negotiated a 10% discount on the test with Antagene just for this club occasion and the club has agreed to subsidise this further with a further discount for club members taking the overall cost down from 115 Euros (plus any bank currency conversion fee which itself can be around £30-40) to just £80 per dog (or £95 for non members who can apply to join on line via this web site or even on the day – go to the homepage and look for the “JOIN” button).
Dr Irvine will not be shaving dogs to take the sample and the small blood sample required should not cause any upset to the dogs or affect their show day in any way beyond taking up a few minutes of time.
It is hoped that club members with potential breeding dogs of either gender who have not yet been tested take advantage of this offer. There will be a veterinary consent form for the owner to sign for the process and in addition there will be help at hand to assist with the paperwork for the test, which some people find difficult to complete, and demonstrations of the HSIMS database will be available to help owners make full use of the test for anyone who would like more information and guidance on how to use the test.
It will be helpful, but not essential, if some paperwork is completed before the day and more details will be available here well before the show. Owners will need to bring the KC registration certificate to the show to validate their dog’s microchip number and other details and contact details of their vet for a professional courtesy notification by Dr Irvine.
It will be helpful, but not essential to assist planning that if you would like to take advantage of this offer, saving over £25 and making the administration easier, if possible please email health@bernese.co.uk as early as possible and say which dogs you will be bringing to test and we can reply with guidance to start the process off in advance to save you time on the day.
Points to Note
- Any Bernese belonging to members that may be considered for future breeding can take advantage of this offer.
- Dogs do not have to be entered in the main show. (NB under KC rules all dogs present should be either entered, NFC or visitor dogs on the day).
- Results of the test will only be sent to the owners and it is not a condition of this offer that the results are shared with the club or anyone else. After receiving the results owners will have the option, via their Antagene on line account, to allow their dogs to be viewed on the HSIMS database. This database can only be viewed by those who have put at least one dog into the system so is not available to the general public who have not utilised the test. Even if electing to enter your dog onto the database the test results themselves will not be made public and this will only happen if actively publicised in some other way by the owner themselves.
- There are around 1,600 Bernese from around 23 countries visible on the International HS database now, but only 27 from the UK.
- Any queries in advance can be sent to health@bernese.co.uk
This test is different to any other in the whole veterinary world, it really is world leading and an example of the future for genetic testing. We are extremely lucky to have it to help us but it is so different it does need a bit of effort to understand and should not be applied or thought of like other tests. Only by using it properly to help make informed breeding decisions, alongside all the other criteria breeders have to consider, will we begin to reduce the scourge of this disease and reduce the high cancer death rate across the breed. More general information about ‘Histio’ and the test can be found on this web site by the links below.
It is hoped UK breeders who have not tested their breeding dogs to date make good use of this special opportunity to test their dogs with reduced effort and at a cheap rate and maybe learn more about the test.
Thank you
Steve Green
BMD Breed Health CoOrdinator
Further information on this site