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Peregrine Falcon Parentage
The chXout® Peregrine Parentage Gold service has been developed with a new panel of 14 DNA markers to determine genetic relationships for pure peregrine falcons.
Samples are collected by an independent third party and posted directly to the laboratory to establish a chain of custody.
Statistical analysis is used to provide a probability of parentage. A specialised report is produced to evidence the independent sample collection and relationship testing.
Important Information
- The service is currently only available for Falco peregrinus, pure peregrine falcons.
- The female parent/mother must be available to participate in the test.
- You will be required to contact a vet to arrange an appointment for the samples to be taken by an independent third party. Pricing will be dependent on your chosen veterinary practice and an additional charge to the pricing above. We hope to be able to confirm further sample collection options soon.
- Please note that unfortunately it is not possible to determine parentage for hybrid species. If there is a chance that any of the birds participating might be a hybrid falcon, please contact us before ordering.
Sample Types
Blood
Mouth Swab
Pricing
DNA Profile: £75 (excl. VAT) per profile – one profile required per bird participating in the test
Reporting & statistical analysis: £40 (excl. VAT) per report – A separate report will need to be produced per case depending on the relationship being investigated. This is due to the statistical analysis involved.
DNA Sample Biobanking: £25 (excl. VAT) per year
Please contact us for a personalised quote.
As an example if you are looking to determine the parentage of 2 offspring, with 2 potential male parents:
2x offspring DNA profiles
2x potential male parent DNA profiles
1x female parent profile (required)
1x report
Total cost: £415 excl. VAT
How does a peregrine falcon DNA test work?
Making use of a special technique known as Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR), we are able to copy all the regions of DNA we require for a falcon DNA test to determine parentage.
chXout® uses fourteen independent autosomal DNA markers to carry out the parentage analysis.
We make use of PCR to copy multiple highly variable regions, known as short tandem repeats (STR’s). By copying and analysing these regions we are able to produce a DNA profile for each individual bird.
Each individual has two alleles (variations between individual sections of DNA) at each DNA marker. One of these is inherited from the mother and the other from the father.
Similarly to a human paternity test, we are then able to compare the DNA profiles of the chick and mother to rule out the alleles inherited maternally.
By process of elimination, we are then left with the alleles corresponding to the alleged father. If the remaining alleles match at each marker, we can conclusively say that the tested male is the biological father of the chick.
The Peregrine Falcon Registry Database
Each bird will be added to our new chXout® Peregrine Falcon Registry database. This collates all of the important information for each bird such as the ring number, A10 certificate, DNA profile, relationship to your other birds, and can be built upon throughout their lifetime.
Instructions
- You will be required to contact a vet to arrange an appointment for a DNA sample to be taken and advise that we will be sending them a sampling kit directly. Pricing for this appointment is dependent on your veterinary practice and is not included in the test price.
- Please complete our order form as soon as possible and email it to sales@chxout.com (please ensure that there is plenty of time before your appointment for us to send out the sampling kit).
- A bespoke sampling kit will be sent directly to your chosen veterinary practice in time for the appointment.
- You will need to provide the A10 certificate for each bird to the appointment.
- The vet will take the samples at the appointment, checking that the ring numbers on the birds match the ring numbers provided on your order form and the A10 certificate.
- Samples will be sent from the vet directly to our laboratory at The Durham Genome Centre.
- Samples will be processed by the laboratory and we will notify you of the expected due date. Results will be provided within 8 working days following receipt of the samples from the veterinary practice. The day we receive the samples is classed as ‘day 0’.
- The data is analysed and a report is produced which is sent to you by email as a PDF attachment.
- Each bird will be added to The Peregrine Falcon Registry database!
Falcon DNA Test FAQs
If you have a large number of birds to be tested with multiple relationships, please contact us for a quote as we may need to provided multiple reports depending on the statistical analysis required.
The mother's sample is used to rule out the maternally inherited alleles to check if the remaining alleles correspond with the potential father.
Currently there are fourteen DNA markers used to confirm falcon parentage. If there was an instance where the potential male parents were closely related enough to not be able to confirm a result due to the similarity of the DNA profiles at those particular markers, this would be explained clearly in the report. Falcon parentage is not quite yet at the same stage as that of dogs and other animals, where additional markers are available to carry out extended parentage testing.
If you are aware of or suspect that any potential male parents may be closely related it is always useful to notify us so that we have all of the information when completing the analysis.
Please note that this service unfortunately cannot be used to determine parentage for hybrid species. If you think there could be a possibility one of the birds you require to be tested could be a hybrid, please contact us prior to placing an order.
Please note that there is an additional cost for this service as you will be required to arrange a DNA sample collection appointment with your vet (independent third party). Pricing will depend on your chosen veterinary practice.
