Why would more markers for the same disease be beneficial?Updated 9 months ago

Genetic diseases and physical traits can be associated with a single genetic variant or multiple variants. Unlike Basepaws' competitors, updates to our health and traits marker panel aim to include all known variants associated with different traits and diseases, based on the very latest scientific evidence. From a disease perspective, this means that you get a more comprehensive view of your cat's risk for each disease. For example, we now test for an additional genetic health marker associated with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM), bringing the total number of markers to three. This new marker could potentially reveal a cat's risk for developing HCM, despite the fact that they may have previously tested negative when we only tested for two markers associated with HCM.

However, it's always important to remember that even with more markers tested per disease (and per trait), there is much to be learned in the field of feline genetics. There may be genetic variants associated with a disease that science has yet to discover. Additionally, environmental factors can also contribute to disease risk.