Yes, I got this email too.
I've responded to say yes i am happy to take part.
I have two bitches. My older girl is spayed after developing a pyometra whilst pregnant, but she had passed two annual eye certs and is optigen clear. It would be interesting to know her status just out of interests sake, altho (touch wood) if she had a "bad" status it would have a knock on affect as two of her sisters have had litters... which brings me to our puppy, who is 6m, and her niece. i have also signed her up.
We have just started showing her and the plan would be, if she is still being well placed and well thought of, to health test her at 12m and go ahead with a litter between 2-3. If she comes back as a carrier or affected it would make life difficult as with any new testing, if not many stud dogs are tested you are rather stuck, at least until the general population takes up the test. Equally the email said that the results will not (yet?) be made public... So it could make life tricky in the short term, but overall i am happy to take part (and just hope she comes back clear!!)
Certainly as a pet owner i would go ahead. The more people that take part the clearer picture the AHT can build up. I know there are some arguments with some of the testing being a money making scheme- some of the testing companies have come up with huge lists of things to test for, just because you can, not because there is an issue in the breed. But i know there are issues with eyes and to my mind the more we know the better we can plan for the future to hopefully irradiate problems.
I am probably in the wrong here, but if your results are not made public, how would your insurance co know? I don't think your vets will be told as you are doing the swabs and sending them to AHT directly. I had to tell my vets my dogs hip scores- even tho they are made public my vets had no idea what they were and had no inclination to seek them out. Equally if you have lifetime insurance things don't become excluded anyway.
Ill update the post when i get the results.