Source folder: Q&As
Source workbook: Questions and answers.xlsx
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Questions and answers imported from the source spreadsheet.
Question: When a client orders this test can they pick and choose the disease they want or is it based on the breed of the horse?
Answer:
Most are based on the breed of the horse – a Quarter Horse has different genetic diseases than an Arabian, for example, and it is considered inappropriate to test for a genetic disease that an animal cannot have. When we receive “wrong” requests, we contact the customer and ask for clarification. For example, does the animal have specific symptoms that leads them to suspect a certain disease? Or does the breed have other breeds in its background that make the test make sense? Now some pony breeds are testing for diseases found in Arabian horses because Arabians were used in breed establishment, for example
Question: Clients sending by courier will need a phone number to add to the address, can you supply one for shipping purposes?
Answer:
Please note that courier within the EU/UK should generally be fine, but anything coming from outside of this region should NOT be sent by courier. Those packages will automatically be sent to the airport processing centers for inspection, which is not actually required in Germany for horse hair or DNA samples. However, they will be sent there by default, and it costs usually around 250 EUR for inspection fees. We will not be responsible for those fees, we will simply reject the shipment – it takes hours of wrangling from our end to deal with paperwork. Airmail is usually quite good, especially if it is sent with tracking – we receive samples from NZ, Australia, India, Singapore, etc.).
Question: What is the cost of the genetic counseling and consultations. - what is the procedure?
Answer:
We provide free genetic counseling for all of the customers we do testing for – they can contact us at any time to ask questions about their results, what it means for their horse/breeding program, etc.
When we are contacted about research-type things, I don’t charge for the little bit of research it takes to find out something about the problem – which research group I can put them in contact with, how we can collaborate, etc.
For more defined projects, I always evaluate the project before coming up with prices. For example, for more complicated things (like the Caspian horse project), I generally calculate an analysis fee of 85 – 100 EUR/hour, once I have a feel for the complexity of the project, etc.