GTG tests a hair of the dog

Melbourne's Genetic Technologies (ASX:GTX, NASDAQ:GNTLY) will be ensuring Australian punters won't be sold the proverbial pup, after signing an exclusive, five-year contract with Greyhounds Australasia to provide DNA-based parentage testing to the greyhound racing industry in Australia and New Zealand.

The new agreement will ensure that what goes around comes around -- both the greyhound and thoroughbred horse racing industries have suffered from ring-in scandals in recent decades, including the notorious Fine Cotton episode.

GTG's new contract with the greyhound industry follows the company's agreement last May to provide a similar proof-of-pedigree service to the Australian National Kennel Council, the nation's peak body for pedigreed pet breeds.

Company's founder and CEO Dr Mervyn Jacobson said the service will employ new diagnostic assays developed for dogs and cattle by Maryland (US) gene testing company MetaMorphix.

In a deal announced earlier this month, GTG secured an exclusive licence to use the MetaMorphix tests in Australia and New Zealand, and a non-exclusive licence to exploit them in Asia, including China.

The ANKC will initially introduce voluntary testing for all pedigreed dog breeds in January 2006, but in January 2008, testing will be mandatory for all breeders seeking to register litters.

Jacobson said his company is expanding its genetic testing services into the racing, livestock and companion-animal markets, and is aiming at combined revenues of $50 million a year from its human, animal and plant gene-testing services within five years.

GTG has recently signed agreements to provide gene tests for Spanish horse societies, specializing in the Lippizaner and Andalusian breed. The testing is for pedigree purposes, and screening for undesirable genes. "We expect this to lead to similar agreements with other specialist breed societies, including saddle-bred horses and trotters," Jacobson said.

Jacobson said recent discussions with the Chinese government has led to his appointment as chief technology officer to the Chinese dairy industry. "The Chinese want me to develop a genetic testing service for their dairy industry," he said. "There's an emerging, potentially very large market for cattle DNA-testing in Asia."

Jacobson said GTG is encouraging leading gene-testing companies that have developed cattle DNA markers -- companies like Metamorphix, Australia's Genetic Solutions, and others in New Zealand and Canada, to join an informal consortium. GTG will aggregate their products into a single package to service the Chinese dairy industry.