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The Finnish Kennel Club introduced DNA parentage verification on a voluntary basis in 2002. Under its DNA certification system, the letter "P" to indicate DNA verified parentage (ie. the dog in question as well as its sire and dam have been DNA certified) will be added to the dog's registration number. The Finnish Kennel Club embarked on DNA certification when its highest decision-making body, the Council of Delegates, tasked the K.C. Board of Directors to work out guidelines and procedures for DNA Certification at its meeting in November, 1999. The original decision set the end of 2000 as a deadline for the work, which proved to be more time-consuming than expected. The initiative to start work on establishing DNA certificates for pedigree dogs came from the representative of one of the country’s largest breed clubs, the Finnish Toy Dog Association, who proposed an inclusion of a DNA certification program in the Finnish Kennel Club’s plan of operations for the year 2000. It was unanimously adopted by the delegates at their semiannual meeting. Since the 1999 decision, the club has been pushing for an early adoption of the scheme. It has maintained that a DNA parentage verification scheme will contribute to the integrity of the Finnish K.C.’s dog registry at the same time as it provides serious breeders more tools to ensure that the genotypes of their dogs are, in fact, what the pedigrees claim they are. The original proposal followed the basic principles of the American Kennel Club’s voluntary DNA certification program, which allows dog owners and breeders to perform a simple cheek swap test. This is then sent to the AKC and forwarded to an AKC-approved laboratory for analysis. Once the DNA analysis is made, a DNA Certificate is issued to the dog owner and the DNA Profile Number is included in the dog’s registration certificate. Although puppy mills are practically non-existent in Finland and the incidence of pedigree forgeries is thought to be small, a DNA certification program was seen by the K.C. delegates as a way to the future – especially as this seems to be the trend elsewhere in the world of pure-bred dogs. The integrity of the stud book is a concern in some other countries. In the club's view, the DNA parentage verification system adopted by the Finnish Kennel Club is too complicated to ensure widespread use of DNA certificates because of the cost and possible inconvenience of taking and analyzing samples simultaneously from the sire, the dam and the puppies. Therefore, the club has cooperated with a laboratory to encourage testing of individual dogs, especially breeding stock, and providing them with DNA ID's. These will be kept on file in the laboratory's database and be available when the dog's offspring is tested until the Finnish Kennel Club has a viable computer system to store individual DNA profiles. Link to the Finnish canine DNA database
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