Choosing the right feather
Large feathers contain more protein and tend to contain less viable DNA for testing. Hence it is better to avoid large size and old feathers. Young feathers contain more active cells and thus increase chances of getting good quality DNA. It’s better to collect feathers from the chest as it is easier for the bird and easy to collect. In general medium sized feathers are ideal for DNA testing. For extremely small birds like finches, budgerigars and lovebirds one may choose to collect a combination of tail, chest and wing feathers. If by chance you pluck blood feather and notice blood oozing out, please wait for 5 min so that the blood dries by air. This will avoid contamination. Do not put blood feathers in wet condition.
Avoiding contamination during feather collection
Most attributable reason to an incorrect result is error in sample collection. Common errors include:
- Touching the tip of the feather with bare hands and proceeding to collect the next bird without sanitizing hands. Its best not to touch the tip of the feather. Even if we happen to do it, we should wash our hands either with soap water or any sanitizer before proceeding to the next bird.
- Improper bird identification. Collecting multiple birds’ feathers into pouches and then writing information may increase the chance of mistake in writing the ring number and in turn the result. Always handle one bird at a time and preferably release the bird whose sample is already collected into another cage.
- Writing incorrect species information. DNA Sexing procedure in lab varies depending on the species for which the test needs to be performed. Any error in reporting the species may lead to incorrect reporting. Therefore, please write the correct species. If you are not sure of what species you are sending the test for, either take help of someone who is knowledgeable or share a picture of the species to enable Pranidhi lab use the species-specific procedure
- Collecting fallen feathers from the cage: Freshly plucked feathers are best for sample collection. Fallen feathers either do not yield result and may not belong to the bird to be tested.
How long can feathers collected yield successful result?
Feathers if freshly plucked and packed in dust-free zip lock pouch can stay for several weeks or even months without any issue. If you are considering to send multiple birds for DNA test and want to pool up all of them, you may store the feathers packed in zip lock pouch and send once all birds’ samples are collected.
Apart from Blood and Feather, can DNA Sexing be performed on any other sample?
Egg shell can also be used to identify if your bird is male or female. One needs to air dry egg shell along with blood streak. Egg shell should not be washed. Dried egg shell can be sent in zip-lock pouch. Care should be taken to identify the chicks hatched from respective egg shells.