Orchid Cellmark is the largest provider of scrapie susceptibility genotyping in the world. Orchid Cellmark has used its highly accurate and robust proprietary scrapie assay to genotype more than 1.3 million sheep in its U.K.-based, high throughput scrapie susceptibility testing service. Since 2001, Orchid Cellmark has been a major supplier of genotyping services to U.K. sheep farmers under the government's National Scrapie Plan (NSP), which is designed to help farmers breed sheep with reduced susceptibility to scrapie. Orchid Cellmark is also the exclusive genotyping supplier to the Northern Ireland Scrapie Plan and provides a commercial testing service directly to farmers in the U.K. In 2005, Orchid Cellmark launched a new testing kit for scrapie susceptibility based on its proprietary assay. The new kit has been designed for customers with lower-throughput testing requirements who want to benefit from the accuracy of this analytical approach when conducting sheep genotyping in their own laboratories.
European Union legislation requires countries to introduce compulsory scrapie genotyping programs beginning in April, 2005. Scrapie is a fatal transmissible spongiform encephalopathy that affects sheep worldwide and has the potential to cause significant economic losses to farmers through the destruction of infected animals and by affecting confidence in the safety of the food supply. Scientists have discovered a number of genetic variations that affect an individual sheep's susceptibility to scrapie. By selecting those sheep with high genetic resistance as breeding stock, over time farmers expect to produce flocks with greatly reduced vulnerability to the condition.
In 2004, Orchid Cellmark entered into new agriculture markets. Early in the year, Orchid Cellmark was selected by Maple Leaf Foods to be the exclusive provider of high-throughput DNA testing for a large-scale Canadian program that represents the first commercial application of DNA technology for pork traceability. Orchid Cellmark successfully developed the assay technology and completed high-throughput genotyping services for the pilot phase of this program.
For more information on Orchid Cellmark's Agriculture DNA Testing Services, please click here.
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Orchid Cellmark's Agriculture DNA Testing Services