Change of DNA provider resulting in increased processing and reporting time.
The DNA laboratory used has always been the one under the umbrella of the Australian Stud Book and has historically been the University of Queensland. The ASB recently decided to move all testing to Massey University in NZ. Breed Societies were notified on a Friday afternoon that the date for the cutover was announced. At the moment there is no other suitably accredited laboratory providing these services in Australia and so the AHSA and other societies have no option than to have testing done in NZ. The University of Qld was providing an excellent service with extremely quick turnaround but was being heavily subsidised financially by the ASB. Unfortunately the turnaround times with Massey have not proven to be the 10 days promised but hopefully as procedures are streamlined this situation will improve. Even though the ASB is using a courier service to get samples to NZ, the huge delays in Australia Post delivery times are not improving the situation.
It is recommended that 4-5 weeks is allowed as turnaround time for DNA/Parentage processing and 6-7 weeks for Genetic Testing. While there is no option for the DNA typing, people requiring urgent genetic testing are advised to use Practical Horse Genetics. The Application for CA, LFS, SCID and Other Genetic Testing from NSW can be found here.
