Last week Equinome – now badged as a division of PlusVital – announced the latest iteration of their "Elite Performance Test", version 3.0. One of their most prominent claims is that they are now "using" on a platform of 670,000 genetic markers, which considers over 48,000 genetic markers related to elite racing and breeding performance. V 3.0, which uses the Equine 670KSNP chip, was of course preceded by V2.0 that used the 75KEquine SNP chip and V1.0 that used the initial 50

Considering it is only 16 months since EQB, Inc. trumpeted that “(T)his year EQB adds DNA genetic profiling to its bag of tricks” we were rather surprised to receive an e-mail blast from them this week with the headline “DNA testing – re: state of the science (underwhelming).” Further reading revealed that the statement, which appears to blithely dismiss a whole field of scientific endeavor, is based on an article titled “ ’Moonshot’ Medicine Will Let Us Down” written by Mich

A lot has been written in the last week in regards to the concept of the ‘speed gene’ and exactly how and when this variant (change or mutation in the DNA code) found itself in the thoroughbred population. Firstly, it must be clearly stated that we don’t take any issue with the science of the paper in terms of how the research was conducted and completed. It was good work. The paper also shows how modern genetics can be useful in solving intriguing questions regarding the his