jackson@utzoo.UUCP (Don Jackson) (12/04/87)
larrabee@decwrl.dec.com (a.k.a Tracy Larrabee) inquires: >Has anyone else besides me used Vivagen for genetic sexing? >I have talked to a breeder "who has a friend" >(apocryphal story?) who send in 30 Hyacinth Macaw specimens and got back >100% reverse on the correct sexes (she new the correct sexes already ... ***? It seems to me that you are missing the obvious. If the technique was 100% incorrect, then all you need to do is change the diagnosis. Now the technique will be 100% correct. I'm surprised that even a domestic parrot breeder didn't figure that one out! I was wondering if you would provide a reference to Vivagen? I am not aware of how it works. Is it a powder that works like Litmus paper? If it's a boy parrot, the powder turns blue and if it's a girl, it goes pink. Is that the way it works? -- Name: Don Jackson Mail: Dept. Zoology, Univ. Toronto Toronto, Ontario, Canada M5S 1A1 UUCP: {allegra,ihnp4,linus,decvax}!utzoo!jackson
larrabee@decwrl.dec.com (Tracy Larrabee) (12/06/87)
In article <9048@utzoo.UUCP> jackson@utzoo.UUCP (Don Jackson) writes: > >larrabee@decwrl.dec.com (a.k.a Tracy Larrabee) inquires: > >>Has anyone else besides me used Vivagen >for genetic sexing? >>I have talked to a breeder "who has a friend" >>(apocryphal story?) who send in 30 Hyacinth Macaw specimens and got back >>100% reverse on the correct sexes (she knew the correct sexes already ... > >It seems to me that you are missing the obvious. If the technique was >100% incorrect, then all you need to do is change the diagnosis. Now >the technique will be 100% correct. I'm surprised that even a domestic >parrot breeder didn't figure that one out! > >I was wondering if you would provide a reference to Vivagen? I am not aware >of how it works. Is it a powder that works like Litmus paper? If it's a >boy parrot, the powder turns blue and if it's a girl, it goes pink. >Is that the way it works? >-- Vivagen is a biological lab in New Mexico. They have done lab work on human specimens for decades: they are highly have a reputation for reliability. Recently they have begun offering a genetic sexing service. Two obvious questions: What is genetic sexing, and Why is it important? To genetically sex a bird, you culture some blood cells taken from a blood feather in the growth stage. The resulting samples are then examined for "ZZ" or "ZW" characteristics: the presence of one implies that the bird is female, the presence of the other implies that the bird is male (I could have the letter symbols wrong--all I remember for sure is that they were *not* X and Y). This technique is important because until now the only reliable method of sexing many parrots was to surgically inspect their gonad(s) (males have two, females have one). This technique has the risks of invasive surgery and general anesthesia. As for the woman with the Hyacinths, she called them up to ask if they meerly got their keys swapped. They say that they did not. They say that the method has been calibrated on known mccaws and that if anyone got the keys wrong, it was the owner (a sentiment with which Mr. Jackson will no doubt sympathize). Tell that to the bird laying the eggs. Unfortunately, Vivagen has just raised their prices from $35/sample to $50/ sample, eliminated any quantity discount, and started charging for the federal express service. Too bad. Of course, to people with birds worth over 10K apiece, such a cost is still incidental, but people will only use the service if they believe it works. Too many stories about wrongly sexed macaws will not help in this regard. (All the official articles have said there have been no cases of proven inaccuracy in a Vivagen sexing, and that the service is scientifically sound.)