Wisdom Health is the world leader in canine genetic testing and has been trusted by over 1.5 million pet parents. They have observed in their long history of testing dogs that the accuracy of a sample can vary depending on the quality of the DNA sample collected from the dog. Because of the potential variation in DNA quality, they are unable to provide a definitive rate of accuracy at this time.
To ensure their tests are as accurate as possible, they focus their research on the following.
Genetic markers: These are the places of variation in a dog's DNA. By studying both the similarities and differences in these markers among different breeds, we're able to determine characteristic signatures. When developing Wisdom Panel tests, they completed over 19 million genetic marker analyses and genotyped over 13,000 dogs. This is important because the careful analysis is necessary to accurately locate the sites of variation that make each breed unique. All of these calculations require a very advanced computer program that can analyze all of this data and identify the breeds in each dog. Today we use over 1,800 markers for testing.
Numbers and types of dogs: Their algorithm compares your dog's DNA to other dogs' DNA. Thus, the more breeds, the better the test.
Validation testing for accuracy: This includes repeated testing of research samples and review by independent, third-party specialists, geneticists, and leading authorities on canine genetics. To ensure proper quality control, USDA-accredited laboratory processes all Wisdom Panel tests.