It is Official -
UC Davis requires/needs more samples to continue with their research into the causes of HWSS.
Whole blood samples are required from both unaffected and affected ponies.
Submissions from affected ponies require high quality digital photographs to accompany the blood samples. Where possible a full medical history is also desired. A farrier's report could also be useful.
If you want your ponies to be part of this research project you need to contact UC Davis OR the Research Group to obtain the correct submission forms and the sample collection protocols.
Samples from outside of the USA will require an import permit which can be obtained from UC Davis or the group.
UC Davis have not indicated how many samples they need BUT let us, the Connemara community, show how important this issue is to the health and welfare of the breed and get as many samples as possible to UC Davis as quickly as possible.
They need more samples to go onto the next stage of the research. Until they have enough the process will slow down dramatically. Some of the research equipment used runs in cycles with 48 samples per cycle. A run does not get wasted by loading less than the optimum number of samples; it all comes back to economies of scale. So until there are enough samples for a 'run' all must wait.
Both UC Davis and the group look forward to having our in-boxes flooded with requests for submission documentation and import permits.
The contact details for UC Davis are on their poster Here is the link to UC Davis
Putting email addresses directly onto the blog, sadly invites the attentions of spam crawlers, so you will need to go directly to the UC Davis page to get their contact details.
