For over fifteen years I have studied the conundrum of purebred dogs, how the very systems that we set in place for their protection, their preservation and the keeping of their pedigree records are killing them slowly through genetic attrition. Founder effect, closed stud books, genetic drift, dog shows, cosmetic artificial selection, inbreeding, bottlenecking, and incautious use of advanced veterinary care and reproductive technology all combine to reduce the hardiness, the evolutionary fitness and the genetic health of our beloved dog breeds. Indeed the very breed concept itself and its corollary obsession with breed purity are responsible for a large part of the damage through rigidly closed stud book registries that make no provision for fresh gene inflow. Many if not most purebred dog breeds appear to be at the point of genetic depauperisation -- like the cheetah, deprived of nearly all their healthy genetic diversity, at the mercy of environmental change.
At last I concluded that the only way to change the purebred system with a view to halting the constant genetic erosion would be to short-circuit the existing self-feeding system by creating an entirely passive canine registry whose sole purpose would be to keep individual dogs' pedigree records for individual breeders and owners, a "registry without breeds" that would register any dog whatsoever without regard to country or kennel club of origin, simply recording the known facts of each dog's ownership, birth, ancestry, etc. -- leaving it up to the breeders alone to decide how to use the data, cutting kennel clubs, breed clubs and breed standards out of the dog registration process altogether. A tempting concept, perhaps; but I could see no practical way to bring it into existence on the grand scale that would be necessary to make the concept work.
Now suddenly it turns out that DNA technology may at last have done an end run around the breed clubs, the registries, the kennel clubs, even the idea of the registry without breeds. All of these things could soon be rendered obsolete overnight, replaced by a simple objective test capable of defining and confirming purebred status in any breed through the use of DNA marker technology.
Mars Veterinary's Wisdom Panel® Purebred test in particular has the potential to restructure radically the present perception of dog breeds and the way they are normally defined and recognised. Heretofore, prior to the introduction of this test, kennel club registries alone possessed the power and privilege to define dog breeds and to identify given animals as members of specific dog breeds. Certificates of registration from the American Kennel Club, the Canadian Kennel Club, or various other European and worldwide registries were the sole acceptable proof of a dog's purebred status and its membership of some particular distinct dog breed. Kennel club registration alone defined purebred status, and the definition of breeds was also in their hands, sometimes with the advice of breed clubs organised under their auspices.
As of this past autumn, though, dog breeders are now able to obtain DNA breed authentication commercially at an unprecedented new level of confidence, totally independent of any existing kennel club registry organisation. For the first time in the history of the purebred dog world it is possible to take a dog of unknown or uncertain origins, administer a simple, relatively inexpensive DNA test and thereby conclusively prove or disprove that the dog is in fact a genetic purebred.
This development in effect destroys the absolute control of breed genomes formerly possessed exclusively by kennel-club registries, by substituting an objective and repeatable scientific DNA test for the kennel club registration process. The implications of this event are indeed profound; I doubt whether these are yet fully appreciated by anyone. As yet the Mars test is not associated with traditional pedigree record keeping or any of the usual methods of individual dog identification. At the moment its sole purpose remains the confirmation of genetic breed membership and purity of breed origin within a three-generation compass. Nevertheless, if the Wisdom Panel Purebred test were to be augmented by individual DNA profiling and parentage verification, it would instantly become a canine certification application of a much higher order of trustworthiness than existing kennel-club registry systems.
How many people, given a choice, would choose this means to authenticate the purebred status of their dog? One can only guess. My guess is a great many. AKC registrations have fallen dramatically in number in recent years -- from 1.5 million in 1992 to 800 thousand in 2007, according to Dr. Carmen Battaglia's article "Ticket to Ride the AKC Train". Yet no really satisfactory alternatives to the big umbrella all-breed kennel clubs have emerged. Nevertheless the overall dog population has not fallen correspondingly; it continued to grow over the same 15-year period. It is fairly obvious that there may be an unmet need out there.
If they wished, Mars Veterinary could add individual SNP-based DNA ID profiling and Parentage Verification to their existing Wisdom Panel® Purebred package thus providing a commercial, apolitical, free-standing individual canine identification, pedigree and breed authentication tool. Such a package could thus provide any purebred dog with positive individual identification and proof of breed identity without recourse to any kennel club. In short, the company would effectively create a highly credible canine registry of its own. Such a development would bypass the existing kennel club political and bureaucratic system, giving dog breeders and owners worldwide individual access to purebred validation for their dogs, free of any requirements for stud book "recognition," without involvement of breed clubs, breed standards, dog shows and the rest of the conventional kennel club apparatus.
Such an event would halt in its tracks the political splitting of dog breeds and breed genomes which is now such a common occurrence. It would deprive breed clubs and registries of the power to enforce conformity with the outdated closed stud book breed purity system through denying registration papers. This would greatly empower dog breeders and owners. It would alter the balance of the dog game, providing a more democratic playing field, ending the tyranny of the "old guard" dog show elite. It would decrease the importance of dog shows and breed "standards of perfection." It would have tremendously beneficial effects on purebred genetic diversity. And most important of all, it would drastically inhibit the harmful effects of "dog politics." People would tend to remain active in the dog world much longer, freed from the almost inevitable disillusionment and discouragement caused by long-term exposure to dog politics and oligarchic control of kennel clubs and breed clubs by entrenched elite groups.
We must hope, however, that the company does not contract with an existing registry or registries to add comprehensive DNA profiling and purebred verification to their existing pedigree record-keeping systems. Of course, that would inevitably involve the same frustrating dog-politics syndrome that has become too familiar to all of us; it would empower no one and would only add a new level of bureaucracy to an already overburdened system. It would, in short, represent a catastrophic lost opportunity for renewal in the dog world. To cut a deal of this kind might be very beneficial to the kennel clubs; less so, I would think, to the company involved as it would sharply limit their own profit and growth potential. It is perhaps fortunate that the kennel clubs are already largely committed to the earlier DNA microsatellite (RFLP or "restriction fragment length polymorphism") technology.
It is quite tempting to envision the breed clubs finally cut out of the registry power structure, at last unable to deny registration to any genetic purebred, to envision the dog show world reduced to an optional individual hobby, to envision dog breeders no longer perpetually under the gun of registry and breed club politics. In short, to envision the tail no longer wagging the dog.
There are persistent rumours that the Canadian Kennel Club is currently under pressure from Canada's federal agricultural authorities to implement fully the purebred definition of Canada's Animal Pedigree Act, which simply stipulates that a purebred animal must be descended at least 7/8 from the foundation stock of its breed. This could conceivably mean the end of CKC's closed stud book at long last. I do not pretend to think that change of that kind could happen easily. But technological change in the form of advanced methods of DNA testing is unquestionably much easier for everyone to accept. So perhaps it is not such an impossible dream, to imagine that the politics of purity could at last come to an end, to be replaced by a simple standard of three-generation DNA-tested pure breeding. There is no reason why we should have to wait for it -- the complete technology is already in place. All that is lacking is the decision of a major company to assemble and market a full-service DNA-based individual canine identification and breed confirmation package. Will Mars Veterinary be that company?
