Bloodtyping to proceed

Press, 12 July 1980, Page 21

Bloodtyping to proceed

PA Invercargill, I Bloodtyping of standard-! bred broodmares will be phased in over a three-year! period, the Trotting Confer-; ence has decided at a closed

debate at its annual meeting in Queenstown. The results of the hourlong discussion of the coni troversial question were aninounced by the conference’s! president, Sir James Barnes. | An Invercargill Trotting Club recommendation that compulsory bloodtyping be abolished hacf been beaten by a substantial margin, he said. There were no lUrge-scale discrepancies in the parentage of standardbreds in New Zealand, but it was now certain that human error and natural animal behaviour had affected the accuracy and authenticity of some entries in the New Zealand Trotting Stud Book. “A small number of foals, reputedly standardbred, whose parentage has been proven to be incorrect, have been deleted from the stud; book,” said Sir James. The sampling programme; would be phased in over a; three-year period initially to; spread the cost. Samples would be taken from 2000 mares producing live foals

;'in the coming breeding sea-) (son. ■ ■’ Mares with names begin-] ■ining with the letters A to Gi •'would be bloodtyped in the! coming season, those from H to O in the second year, and ; those from P to Z in the : third year. Mares whose : names carried a stud-book i prefix would be accommo- ) dated separately. To help contain costs sams pies could be taken by ■ freeze-branding contractors ’ when foals were branded. ■ Owners would be able to I have a veterinarian do the; (sampling at their own ex-) ’tpense. ■I There would be a limited I [programme of random 'checking for parentage de-, , I termination next season. ! , To avoid duplication a) II new freeze-branding symbol) would be introduced which li would be applied to all bloodtyped mares. i After the initial proi gramme it would be neces- • sary only to get samples > from mares not carrying the bloodtyping symbol after i 1983,