IN A WORLD WHERE THERE ARE NO AFFECTED FOALS....
as a responsible arabian horse owner and breeder, I have been reading the blogs, discussions, and articles about CA, SCIDS, and LFS, and it has made me think, there should be a way to insure there are no more affected foals. my thought is that if it was a part of the registration process to test for these genetic issues, and have it branded on the horse's registration papers, there would never be a question of what the status of the horse is. I believe that it is AHA 's responsibility to the breed to put this into effect as a mandatory part of registering foals in an effort to continue to protect the integrity of the breed. some people may object to this in reference to the costs, but when we think about all the money into producing a foal, and all the different sweepstakes and futurities we enroll our foals in, the cost is minuet. so lets be the voice that compels AHA to do the honorable act, and protect all future arabian horses.
We, the undersigned,
am requesting that AHA take an active part in eliminating the instance of affected foals of Cerebellar Abiotrophy (CA)
Severe Combined Immunodeficiency (SCID)
Lavender Foal Syndrome/Coat Color Dilution Lethal (LFS/CCDL)
my proposal is to institute mandatory testing of foals for these genetic traits, as a normal part of the registration process, similar to what is done with the current DNA testing. and by branding the papers of these foals in order to insure that all owners and possible future owners will be able to make the most informed purchase/ and breeding decisions. by doing so, it will help to eliminate cases of of these genetic diseases, and help reduce some of the stigmas that are currently being propagated by different media outlets. I also think that there should be an option to be able to brand the papers of current breeding stock for owners who are voluntarily testing their animals. there could be an option to opt out of these tests for breeders who geld their colts prior to being registered. of course this is a simplified version of a proposed new ruling for AHA, but I believe that the proposal has merit and should be taken into serious consideration and that by making this a universal requirement it would benefit the breed as a whole and set an example of being a responsible horse community.
