I am joined on today's show by Dr. Rebecca Bellone of the UC Davis Veterinary Genetics Laboratory to talk more about genetic diseases in horses, the testing they do at UC-Davis, and the importance it has on our industry. Dr. Bellone earned her Ph.D. in Equine Genetics from the University of Kentucky in 2001.  Subsequently she was on faculty in the Department of Biology at the University of Tampa for twelve years while there she was a three time recipient of the College of Natural and Health Sciences Outstanding Scholar Award She relocated to California and joined that faculty of UC Davis in 2014.  Since 2002, she has led an equine genetics and genomics research program investigating many diverse traits in the horse including pigmentation and genetic disorders. The overarching goal of her research program is to identify and understand genetic variation that can explain phenotypes of interest and those of medical importance. Her research team has discovered causal mutations for several pigmentation traits and ocular disorders in horses including Appaloosa spotting, congenital stationary night blindness, and ocular squamous cell carcinoma, among others.  She is currently investigating the genetics of several additional ocular disorders, as well as pigmentation traits, performance triats, and genetic diversity in horses and is working with the team of scientist working to gain a better understanding of the regions of the horse genome that regulate tissue specific gene expression.  Dr. Bellone is a Professor in the Department of Population Health and Reproduction and is the Director of the Veterinary Genetics Laboratory, a unit of the School of Veterinary Medicine at the University of California, Davis with an international reputation as experts in veterinary genetic testing.

Links mentioned in the episode:
https://vgl.ucdavis.edu/
https://omia.org/home/

Social Media:
https://www.facebook.com/ucdavis.vgl/
https://www.instagram.com/ucdavis_vgl/

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