DNA tests for the blue egg gene, shipping samples to Germany

[DarJones]

I don't plan to use the GW's though there is one that I may retain and breed from. He is very much a Silver Laced Wyandotte with the best phenotype I currently have in my flock.

 

[LadiesAndJane]

This is very fascinating. Interesting to see if you have different results from the German lab compared to IQ genetics. I use IQ genetics all the time for DNA sexing my Silkies and they have awesome customer service and so far 100% accuracy in the results. So cool they now offer the blue egg gene testing.

 

[Amer]

And the results!

Lab-ID	S#	Legband#	animal IL 2	genotype
20222285	1	1		GW
20222286	2	5		WW
20222287	3	7		GW
20222288	4	22		GW
20222289	5	23		WW
20222290	6	24		GG
20222291	7	26		WW
20222292	8	29		GG
20222293	9	30		GG
20222294	10	33		WW
20222295	11	84		WW
20222296	12	85		GW
20222297	13	86		WW

G = geen (blue) eggshell allele
W = wild type allele

As you can see above roosters 24, 29, and 30 are GG which means I have 3 homozygous blue egg roosters to breed from. More important, I can get rid of roosters 5, 23, 26, 33, 84, and 86 which do not have a blue egg gene! Talk about putting my breeding program on steroids.......

Yay! Did it tell you whether they have the rosecomb gene?

 

[DarJones]

They are working on the rose comb test after having issues with the previous test version. My samples will be re-tested when they have the new test ready sometime in the next couple of weeks. I committed to submitting further samples to help with getting the test to work.

One thing that is a problem is that they do not have verified samples of some of the variants needed such the R2 allele. You can look this up online by searching for "rose comb R2 allele" to understand why it is highly desirable where rose comb birds are concerned.

Testing for rose comb is much more difficult than testing for a single gene (such as blue egg) as rose comb is caused by a chromosome inversion. The same gene is there whether inverted or wild type. To detect the inversion, they either have to detect products of the inverted gene or they have to detect the start/stop points where the inversion is attached to the rest of the chromosome.

tldr; rose comb test not ready yet, but they are working on it and will eventually offer it.

 

[pinewoodacres]

Thanks for all these details! I was just posting about IQ in Miami and this post came up after I started a new thread. Did you ever send samples to them?

 

[DarJones]

No, I have not sent samples to IQ. I will use them as soon as I have some more birds to test. For now, I've reduced to just the 3 roosters that are homozygous along with maybe 200 chicks hatched so far this year that should be 25% homozygous. I plan to raise the chicks far enough to determine male/female and keep only the female chicks with best SLW phenotype. This should maintain high enough levels of genetic diversity while continuing in the direction of pure breeding blue egg layers.

 

[HaikuHeritageFarm]

Legbars carry a recessive gene that limits egg production potential (1 in 10 chance of a low egg producer) plus they mostly lay green eggs and I wanted blue eggs.

Can you tell me more about where you found this information about the limited productivity gene and where I can read up on it? I raise 4 varieties of legbars and have never encountered it. They lay better than my purebred leghorns almost without fail!

 

[Fallenone05]

This is REALLY interesting!! I'm interested in watching your breeding process too and would love to see the babies

 

[annadaboo]

Can we see pics of your 3 keeper roosters? And did you keep the GW one with good SLW typing?