Resources

How to Pull Hair

Please ensure you are pulling hair from the tail switch (the long hair at the end of the tail). The hair follicle must be intact (little white or black bulb on the end of the hair – that came out of the tail) as this is where the DNA is extracted from. Place the hair follicle end of the hair under the sticky flap of the hair card. Ensure you label the hair card completely with the complete tattoo (including letters), animal name, and indicate it is a CSPA animal.

How to take a Tissue Sample

Place the tube into the applicator as per instructions. Take a punch out of the calf’s ear between the ribs to ensure the plug is tissue and not cartilage. Do NOT punch through your tattoo. You can take these samples on young calves but be sure that they no longer have any amniotic fluid on them as it will cause contamination with the dam’s DNA. Tissue sampling is an easy, efficient way to take DNA samples that eliminates a lot of possible contamination issues. Multiple tests at different times can also be run off the same sample. Make sure that you label the TSU box with the complete tattoos of the animals corresponding to the appropriate barcode on the TSU tube. Write on the box CSPA. If you are only submitting a few tubes you do not need to send the full box. You can send the tubes in an envelope but please make sure you include a piece of paper indicating which tube barcodes correspond to the appropriate animal tattoo. Ex. CSP 1K is AF10000987

DNA requests

In the future, members will be able to make DNA requests through the online registry system. Right now, once calves have been entered and a UNR number has been generated, members need to contact the CSPA office via email with a list of the UNR numbers and the tests they would like ordered. You can also indicate where you may need alternate sires tested for certain calves. That way the lab can check them all at once and prevent delays down the road. Once the office has made these requests the samples can be mailed directly to the lab.

DNA Test Types

All calves must be parent verified before they can be registered with the CSPA. Some sires and dams may still have microsatellite/STR profiles on file. These can not be compared with SNP profiles when parent verifying calves. You can check what sires and dams have on file by going to the LAB tab when you look them up through your online registry login. If they have SNP or SNP-50K or SNP-100K you are good to go. If they have DNA this means they have a STR profile. In these cases the parent will either need to be upgraded to SNP or we will need to order both the SNP and STR on the calf you are trying to register.

• 100K - $50+tax; includes parent verification through SNP. This is a high density SNP that will allow animals to have genomically enhanced EPDs once we get that going. You will order this when updating a parent who only has microsatellite to have a SNP (and you don’t want the conditions done).
• Combo test - $75+tax; includes 100K, horned/polled, coat color & myostatin. This includes the parentage verification through SNP, and the condition results. This will be what you are ordering on the calves you are trying to register.
• STR test - $30+tax; this is the microsatellite or STR test. You will only order this on calves that need to be parent verified to a sire or dam that only has microsatellite on file and that parent is unable to be updated to SNP.
• Conditions Combo - $62+tax; this is a combo test for horned/polled, coat color & myostatin. You would order this if you had previously already ordered a SNP 100K on an animal and now need conditions results. This could happen for certain AI sire or donor dam cases.

You can also order the conditions on individual basis should the need arise.

Submitting DNA Samples to the Lab

Please send your samples directly to Neogen Canada. Please make sure that DNA requests through the CSPA office have been made before you mail your samples. You do not need to include any forms generated by the CSPA office as long as your hair cards and TSUs are labelled completely and appropriately. The address for the lab is as follows:

Neogen Canada
7323 Roper Road NW
Edmonton, AB T6E 0W4

Receiving DNA Results

Once your DNA results are back and the parentage has been verified and conditions are met your animal is ready to be registered. You can login to your online system, go to My Performance then My Calving. Look up the animal and check off the register box at the bottom of the page and hit Save. You will generate a registered CDN number for that animal.

Transfers

If a physical certificate has been generated for an animal transfers must be completed through the CSPA office. Please fill out the transfer information on the back of the certificate and mail it into the office. For your animals you are registering now; if you check of the HOLD CERTIFICATE, at the bottom of the screen when registering the calf you will be able to do an online transfer. This means you will not receive a printed certificate. If you do not check off the HOLD CERTIFICATE box then a certificate will be printed and sent to you. If you need to transfer the animal you will need to fill it out and submit through the CSPA office.

[ Download the Animal Transfer Form (PDF) ]