VGL vs Embark COI for 5 Golden Retrievers

VGL’s Internal Relatedness (IR) and Embark’s COI both aim to measure how genetically similar the DNA a dog inherits from each parent is, but they do so in different ways. IR uses STR markers and compares the dog’s genetics to population allele frequencies, and estimate of inbreeding-homozygosity.

In contrast, Embark’s COI uses SNP data to identify runs of homozygosity, providing a more direct estimate of inbreeding by measuring how much of the genome is identical by descent.

In this info picture we took the data for five Golden Retrievers tested at both VGL and Embark and did a side-by-side comparison. The focus is on COI, IR, OI and AGR results. The main similarity between the two tests are the VGL IR and Embark’s COI. VGL offers many more diversity points of interest in their test. Embark is very accurate at knowing how inbred a dog is.

View the “Learn More” page on the web site for more on the science of dog inbreeding, DNA testing and genetic diversity.