“They really start to look at their pets almost as substitute children,” she said. In addition, dog owners, and millennials in particular, are spending more on their pets than ever before. “As human genetics has really started to bubble up to the surface, and it's not as scary and foreign - you can go to your doctor now and get a genetic test for allergies and breast cancer genes, et cetera - the pet health trends are following that,” said Juli Warner, senior brand and corporate affairs manager at Mars Veterinary. And newcomer Embark Veterinary, which launched a consumer canine genetic test last year that is also markets to breeders, conducted in the tens of thousands of tests in its first year. Likewise, Canadian firm DNA My Dog has seen its business, which exclusively caters to dog owners, more than double over the last four years. Most of these tests were ordered by dog owners. One of the largest providers, Mars Veterinary, which is part of the food company Mars, says it has run almost 800,000 dog DNA tests over the past 10 years, the majority over the last four years. Similar to ordering a spit kit online for a human genomic ancestry test, buccal swab kits to determine a dog’s breed mix or genetic disease susceptibility are now readily available on the internet. Several companies in the US and Canada have been offering canine genetic testing services to dog owners, breeders, and veterinarians, and some of the consumer-facing providers have been marketing their tests through rescue shelters and communal dog runs. But the genomic revolution has not bypassed another important household member: man’s best friend. NEW YORK (GenomeWeb) – Consumer genomics has taken off in recent years, with companies like 23andMe and Ancestry advertising their testing services on the radio and the subway.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
Details
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |