So far testing in Australian Warmbloods and related breeds has shown a carrier rate of 11.5% for Fragile Foal Syndrome. With a carrier rate this high, breeders should have been seeing far more affected foals than have been reported – at least a couple every year. We still don’t know why these affected foals aren’t being born. Are they never conceived in the first place? Are they lost as an embryo? Are they aborted mid-term?

One thing we certainly haven’t seen is a healthy adult horse with two copies of the FFS gene. You can read more in Dr. Kao’s blog https://horse.practicalhorsegenetics.com.au/wpr/2018/05/30/fragile-foal-syndrome-what-we-know-may-2018/

In the hope of gaining some insight we want to remind Warmblood breeders that we are offering free FFS testing on aborted foals. Call us on 0410 492 005 to confirm what tissue sample to take and to let us know that your sample is coming