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Re: [RC] SCID : Calling vets and breeders - heidiONLY way to eliminate a genetic disorder is to NOT breed known carriers. It is unfortuanate you lost your foal. I have lost foals but not to SCID. The lovely Arabian can be so delicate in some ways. There is all sorts of political stuff going on about it. Check out the Arabian Registry web pages. Good luck. Mary Ann No, Mary Ann, the way to eliminate the "disorder" is to test, and to not breed a carrier to another carrier. Horses who merely carry the gene do NOT have a "disorder." You are right that there is a lot of political stuff going on about SCID--and too often the politics gets in the way of education and common sense. The Arabian breed cannot afford to throw away the rest of the genetic material carried by horses who also carry the SCID gene, and those who study population genetics are very emphatic about stating that one should NOT eliminate carriers just BECAUSE they are carriers, but should instead take a very hard look about what else those individuals have to offer. Additionally, by simply eliminating the carriers, one causes a genetic shift in the population that raises the carrier rates of other lethal genes, both known and unknown. Far better to deal with the one for which we DO have a test, than to have higher rates of those for which we DON'T have tests--among them Lavendar Foal Syndrome, Cerebellar Abiotrophy, etc. Heidi =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Ridecamp is a service of Endurance Net, http://www.endurance.net. Information, Policy, Disclaimer: http://www.endurance.net/Ridecamp Subscribe/Unsubscribe http://www.endurance.net/ridecamp/logon.asp Ride Long and Ride Safe!! =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
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