FAQs

You will need to submit a mane or tail hair sample. We request 30 - 50 hairs with intact, clean root follicles. These should be attached to the sample form you will receive when you order your test, and placed in a zip-lock plastic bag or paper envelope.

For routine testing we prefer hair samples. However, if hair isn’t available, we can also extract DNA from blood, semen, and even correctly stored skin or muscle tissue. We cannot reliably extract DNA from bone or teeth. Please contact us through the Contact Us page if you need to discuss DNA extraction from samples other than hair.

There is no age limit for DNA testing. However, we need 30 - 50 hairs with intact roots. If you are submitting a young horse, please pull tail hairs.

Wash your hands before sampling your animals and between sampling different animals. This prevents cross contamination of a sample with hairs from the previous sample.

Pull a small clump of 30-50 hairs from the mane or tail. The DNA is in the cells at the end that was pulled out of the horse, so check that the hairs have these roots present and haven’t broken. The hair roots look like little lumps or hooks at the end of your sample.

If the hair is long, you can trim the ends off (making sure to keep the ends with the roots!) and the sample should be sticky taped to the submission form in the indicated position. This can be placed into a snap-lock bag or envelope before submission.

This depends on many factors such as: the current volume of samples needing testing, the condition of the sample, and if we have been provided with complete information on the identification of all possible parents. Samples are tested in the order they are received, and turnaround times may vary by test type. However, we aim to have all results finalised within 10 business days of receiving the sample.

At this stage we don’t offer a priority service. Each sample is processed as soon as we receive it, and in the order it is received. Upon completion of the testing and analysis, the results are sent electronically to the Association that submitted the sample.

Reports are sent out as soon as they are completed. There are a number of reasons for possible delays including insufficient information received about the parents, ambiguous results requiring a re-test, insufficient hairs or poor-quality roots on hairs.

The EGRC stores the submitted hair samples for the life expectancy of the animal. If you were the person who initially ordered the test, you can add a test to an existing sample through the submitting Association.

No, if you were not the person who originally tested the animal, you cannot add new tests to that sample.

If you are testing through one of the Association that holds a contract with us, the results are sent to that Association. Results are sent by email.

We do not provide test results over the telephone. All test results are emailed back to the submitter.

A DNA profile is a description of the DNA at a minimum of 12 places (markers) on the genome. When you receive your horses DNA profile, it will consist of the marker names and two letters listed under each marker. Each letter corresponds to a specific variant of the marker. Note that the DNA profile does not provide any information on what breed your horse is.

Yes, but the result is much more accurate if you have samples or profiles from both parents. Testing only one parent does not always give a complete picture and could allow for the qualification of a parent that would be excluded if the other parent information was considered.

Please contact us through the 'Contact Us' link on our website. Our postal address for samples is: PO Box 433, Scone, NSW, 2337.

No, there is currently no test that can accurately determine horse breed.