DNA TESTING within pedigree cattle societies has been thrust into the spotlight this week, following the British Limousin Cattle Society's letter to members alerting them to a 'DNA parentage identity issue' with the pedigree Limousin bull, Ballinloan Jaegerbomb.

In a letter, it said: "Every effort is presently being made to resolve this issue.Whilst the DNA testing work is ongoing, the society feels that it is important and necessary to bring the issue to members' attention as quickly as possible."

Semen from this bull has been available through a number of outlets – but with the parentage in question, the BLCS is advising no further purchase or use of semen held from this bull until further notice. Registrations for calves sired by this bull can still be made, but they will be put in the society's 'holding tank' but will not be approved and fully registered until the situation is resolved.

Chief executive of the Limousin Cattle Society, Iain Kerr, explained that nothing else can be added to the situation: "We are obviously trying to find a resolution to the situation, but until we have DNA testing results, we cannot move forward and the DNA samples are in the hands of the labs at this time.

"We are where we are and we just need to wait and see what happens going forward. We circulated the letter detailing the situation to make society members aware of what was happening, which was the right thing to do, and will continue to keep members up to date as more information comes to light."

DNA testing can throw up issues for any of breed society and several have admitted to The Scottish Farmer that they too have had to resolve parentage discrepancy issues, but perhaps not with the same profile. Differences in accuracy between different testing systems have also cropped up, as has whether the verification of dams as well as sires should be in place.

Communications manager for the British Charolais Cattle Society, Sue Stenner, sympathised with the situation the Limousin society were in and admitted that they have also had sire mix ups in the past, which had been resolved.

"We are actually in the middle of changing the DNA testing system we use at the Charolais society," said Ms Stenner. "We currently use a Microsatellites testing system, but as of the start of July, we will change to using the Snips testing system.

"Our current system uses 16 markers for comparison on parentage, but the new system will use 50,000 markers, meaning it's far more thorough. The standard is using 200 markers.

"For society sales, since 2012, any animal has had to be sire verified, or have had its full parentage verified if the dam's information was available. We haven't historically tested females, but that is something that will also come in with the changes in July."

The British Simmental Cattle Society also require all animals to be sold through society sales to be sire verified. Society chief executive, Neil Shand, explained: "As well the rules for society sales, all progeny in herd books must also be sire verified. However, embryo calves must all be both sire and dam verified to be 100% sure of parentage.

"We've experienced the odd failure in sire verification in the past, but these have normally been very easily fixed."