Understand your report
You can begin by getting a good grasp of the terminology and jargon used in the DNA report by reading a bit on understanding your paternity test results. Given the fact that it is a scientific result it may not be immediately obvious in terms of what to look out for and what certain numbers and terms mean. Generally, rest assured, that one rarely encounters any problems with grasping results; however, in a paternity DNA test there can be some mutations on specific loci (genetic markers) which necessitate sending in the mother’s samples to have an accurate and reliable paternity test result. Luckily, such mutations do not happen often.
In any case, the mother’s sample is always recommended for inclusion for two main reasons:
- Testing the mother’s sample can increase the accuracy of testing; the probability of paternity will be in excess of 99.99% with the mother’s samples.
- Testing the mother’s DNA sample in a paternity test means that if any mutations are found scientists can easily trace the mother’s share of genetic inheritance and see whether this has come from her or from the putative father.
View a sample DNA test report for a paternity test:
Sample DNA test result- without mother’s sample – EXCLUSION
Sample DNA test result- with mother’s samples – INCLUSION
Even without the mother’s samples, a paternity DNA test report will still give an inclusion percentage of paternity that is no less than 99.9%.
The probability of paternity can never reach a 100% probability; any company advertising that they can tell you with 100% accuracy whether the tested father is the biological father are not adhering to the strict scientific methods necessary for compiling reliable paternity test results. A 100% probability would only be possible if every man in the world got tested. 99.99% excludes a good percentage of the male population and is enough to make paternity test results incontrovertible.
For a legal test, the result will look the same just as in the sample DNA test result provided here for your perusal- in other words the DNA test report will not change. What does change is the method in which samples are collected.