Results of the 2011 Relationship Testing Workshop of the English Speaking Working Group

We present the results of the 2011 Relationship Testing Workshop of the English Speaking Working Group of the International Society for Forensic Genetics. A total of 62 laboratories participated. The exercise included relationship testing of blood samples from a man and two children. Assuming that the man is the biological father of both children, the laboratories were asked to investigate if the results were in favour or against that the children were half or full siblings. Furthermore, the laboratories filled out a questionnaire concerning the laboratory strategies and routines. Finally, the laboratories were encouraged to do a paper challenge with statistical calculations. The relationship testing exercise revealed that the use of mtDNA and X-STR was informative and excluded the possibility of full siblings. In the questionnaire, most laboratories (77%) indicated that a single autosomal STR kit was used in all paternity cases. However, > 60% of the laboratories had three or more autosomal STR kits available for paternity testing. The paper challenge showed large variations in the biostatistical calculations in cases of rare events such as a rare allele and when a single genetic inconsistency was observed. (C) 2011 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.