Why DNA test?
It is very difficult to tell the male and female canaries apart, especially young birds that are less than 6 months old. Without knowing if your birds are male and female it is difficult to sell them. The males usually sell for more than the females and to sell a bird without knowing what it is you usually have to sell it at the price of a hen. There is a new technique that can determine the gender of a bird using DNA from a feather! How does it work? DNA stands for Deoxyribo Nucleic Acid. It’s the genetic code of the bird and is the same in every cell in the whole bird. The DNA is different in males and females. DNA testing uses enzymes specific for DNA that break the DNA strands at certain points. DNA breaks at different points in males than in females and produces DNA fragements of different sizes that are gender specific. The fragmented DNA is amplified by PCR (which just makes more of the same DNA – necessary so you can see the DNA) and then it is run through an agarose gel (elect
