BCOA Bulletin January-February-March 2007 - the Basenji Club of ...

CONDITIONAL REGISTRY
The AKC’s DNA programs have resulted in an unprecedented approximately the same for breeders who register one or two litters
level of accuracy to the AKC registry by evaluating the a year as it is for those who register 8 or 9 litters a year. (10+ are
parentage of many AKC dogs and litters. However, for that
slightly higher). So dogs, breeders, and puppy owners all
very small percentage of registered dogs that are found,
across our spectrum of customers are affected.
often years after birth, to have an unknown ancestor,
Another potential twist is the Pennsylvania style
the AKC has canceled the registration. To maintain
"Lemon Laws" that could require a breeder to refund
genetic diversity, improve customer relations, and
up to 50% of the purchase price if a registration
still maintain the accuracy of the registry, the Board
is cancelled. There are and will be many people,
of Directors approved the concept to allow the issuing
including innocent third parties, who will be most upset
of Conditional registration certifi cates and pedigrees,
with AKC, threatening to destroy all of our advances in
rather than canceling the registrations of a dog, all of its
littermates and all of their progeny in these cases. This concept
credibility, image, and reputation.
was discussed at the September 2005 Delegate Meeting where Potential Solutions: AKC staff has determined eight different
AKC’s Consultant on DNA Science and Technology Dr. Elaine possible solutions to this dilemma, though all have some drawbacks.
Ostrander recommended its implementation.
They range from maintaining the status quo, which would continue
the ever-increasing number of cancelled registrations, unhappy
The Problem of the Pyramid Effect
customers and decreased revenue, to ending the DNA programs all
The AKC staff has identifi ed and informed the Board of a together, which would be a disaster for our message to the public
growing problem related to the efforts to maintain the integrity and would seriously weaken the integrity of the studbook.
of the AKC registration database and studbook. The situation is • One proposal for making better use of DNA suggests
especially challenging because all of the solutions proposed so far collecting samples from all breeding stock, archiving them (such as
have signifi cant drawbacks or side effects.
with FTA paper), and processing the samples only when a question
arises. This would also facilitate a random audit and processing
The Problem: Current AKC policy is that whenever DNA to prove whatever level of studbook accuracy we desire. While
testing indicates incorrect parentage of a purebred litter, all efforts a valuable theory, it does not solve the pyramid problem, as an
are made to cooperate with the breeders to establish the correct incorrect registration could go undiscovered until a question had
parentage, which is successful about 50% of the time. If the arisen, potentially many generations later.
information needed to make the corrections is not available, the • Another proposal suggests the development of a "qualifi ed"
litter registration will be cancelled. This applies to litters whelped pedigree, using an identifying marker on the pedigree or registration
after January 1, 2000.
number that would indicate that the parentage, at a certain point in
This policy, along with other DNA identifi cation programs, has the pedigree, is uncertain or unverifi able. Potentially, after several
led to a substantial improvement in the integrity of the studbook. subsequent generations of DNA proved registrations, or discovery
However, much of the compliance audit testing, and all of the of other confi rmatory information, the marker could be removed
Frequently Used Sires testing, is done on dogs who have already from further generations. While this would pose a different public
produced litters, and whose progeny may have multiplied. Thus, relations challenge, admitting that there are some things that we do
when that dog is excluded from the registry, ALL of the progeny not know actually strengthens the credibility of the information,
are also excluded. While this works to ensure the integrity of our which we do know.
database, it also works to make a large number of people very • A potentially effective solution would be to have a truly
unhappy with AKC, and drives them away from us permanently. random audit of a certain number of sets of parents and offspring,
Imagine that you get a letter from AKC informing you that with the DNA collected and processed at AKC expense. This is
the grandsire of the stud dog you used last year has been found similar to the method the IRS uses with great success in keeping the
to have incorrect parentage, and all of his progeny now have their "error rate" for income tax returns very low. This could eliminate
registration permanently cancelled - including the young puppy the need for the Frequently Used Sires program, which would
you kept out of the litter and have already shown successfully! substantially reduce the costs to high volume breeders, and show
Although the total number of dogs excluded is still relatively that all breeders are treated equally. Those factors might bring
small, it is growing at an exponential rate. Furthermore, those dogs some responsible high volume breeders back to AKC. The down
will continue to reproduce, creating more and more dogs that are side is that there would be substantial costs for data collection and
ineligible for AKC registration, and more and more people turned DNA processing (one estimate was more than $1 million dollars
away from AKC.
per yearly audit), and a certain percentage of registration errors
While we believe we have a very high standard of integrity, we would still go through undetected.
also know that there have always been some errors in our records, • Many people have urged AKC to move towards requiring
caused by accident, inattention, carelessness, and occasionally by DNA collection and analysis of all breeding stock at the time of
outright fraud. The data indicates that there is no single group of litter registration. This has the advantage of proving absolute
breeders that cause all the problems - the litter exclusion rate is integrity of the registry, and eliminates the pyramid effect, as any
The Basenji Club of America, Inc. BULLETIN - 16