about us
L.G.S., acronym for Laboratorio di Genetica e Servizi (Genetics and Services Laboratory), is a cooperative Company, established in 1980 by the National Associations of breeds and species, with the financial support of the Italian Association of Animal Breeders and the Italian Ministry of Agriculture.
L.G.S. has been offering its services to the Italian breeders, through diverse activities in support of genetic selection and herdbook keeping of animal species that are of interest to zootechnics.
The main aim of the work of L.G.S., called up to May 2004 Laboratorio Gruppi Sanguigni (Blood Groups Laboratory), has always been animal genetic identification and parent-offspring relationship diagnosis, formerly through bloodtype screening and by methods of DNA analysis at present.
L.G.S has its head office in Cremona, in an area of about 1,000 square metres situated in the suburbs, in a restored farmstead typical of Cremona characterised by valuable architectural elements. The experimentation and research seat in Potenza is located inside the headquarters of the Provincial Association of Animal Breeders. Thanks to a high-level knowledge acquired in the filed of molecular genetics, along with the remarkable technological progress towards automation of certain analytical phases, L.G.S. has succeeded in introducing the most important and widespread techniques based on DNA analysis.
Following the international scientific trends, since late ’80s the Laboratory has been able to offer DNA-based identification and parent-offspring relationship diagnosis, in addition to the analysis of genes of zootechnical interest that influence the productive and reproductive characteristics of bred animals.
L.G.S. collaborates with various national and international research Centres in numerous projects aimed at developing new methods in the field of molecular genetics applied to zootechnics.
Furthermore, L.G.S. contributes actively to projects of international cooperation with laboratories of foreign institutions. In particular, in the last years L.G.S. has had a major role in the following projects: “Genotypic identification and bovine relationship by DNA methods” in Egypt, “Twinning Project to control the TSE in the ovine species” in the Slovak Republic, “Study of the biodiversity of goat native breeds in Albania”.
L.G.S. has the SINAL accreditation (National System for the Accreditation of Test Laboratories) according to the UNI CEI EN ISO/IEC 17025 standard.
The ISO accreditation is a requisite to guarantee the reliability of the Laboratory and the transparency of all working phases. Since 1992 L.G.S. has been a member of the International Society for Animal Genetics (ISAG), whose standards are followed by service laboratories all over the world, and has participated actively in the international congresses and in interlaboratory evaluation tests (ISAG Comparison Test) that are held every two years. L.G.S. is the only Italian laboratory to be a member of 4 different ISAG committees (Equine Genetics and Thoroughbred Parentage Testing Standardization Committee, Cattle Molecular Markers and Parentage Testing Committee, Applied Genetics in Sheep and Goats Committee, Canine Applied Genetics Committee).
L.G.S. is the reference laboratory for the organisation of the 2005/2006 equine Comparison Test.
