DNA Paternity Testing in Thailand

You must be able to trust your DNA paternity testing laboratory in Thailand, because paternity is a very important issue which profoundly affects the lives of the child, parents, and extended families. There must be high standards of quality and auditing established to truly international standards in the laboratory, where the actual testing is done behind the scenes. Anybody can say anything, but the best proof is in the certifications.

However, the #1 source of error we have observed is not at the laboratory, it involves the collectors and collection site, especially as regards local Thais trying to go back and bribe them secretly. For example, we have had two kinds of experience:

1. Thais associated with the mother have come back and offered a bribe to issue a report stating a particular man is the father. Of course, we have refused. They have offered to bribe the collector, and they have offered to bribe our office. We inform fathers of this, so don't try to bribe us!

2. We've done tests for customers who want to double check the results of other labs. Most of the time, the result is the same, but in some of these cases we have found different results. For every test in which the customer went to a third lab, to see who was right and who was wrong, the third lab has always agreed with us, not the first service provider who had different results.

There are three ways a result can go wrong:

1. intentional fraud
2. unintentional human error
3. unintentional laboratory error

Laboratory certifications address item 3, as well as item 2 within the laboratory.

Regarding item #1, this seems the most risky. Thailand is known for many people pursuing what they want by under the table money behind the scenes discreetly.

Regarding human error, there are many stories of babies getting mixed up in hospitals, medical prescriptions being switched, and other kinds of human error. It may be more obvious when a prescription gets mixed up because it can be compared to the illness to see if it makes sense, or when a baby gets switched just from what the baby looks like, but with swabs of DNA, all swabs look the same so that the laboratory must be very careful to not mix them up. We are very careful about this. Our DNA samples are bar coded, with a unique ID for each case, starting before we even take your samples, and you can see with your own eyes at the time of collection the IDs / bar codes on the envelopes in which your samples go immediately, with your names written on the envelopes in advance of sampling.

We are a truly registered company in Thailand, a real "Co., Ltd.", not just a local trade name, nor just using the company name of some corporation overseas which is not registered in Thailand. We are officially registered here, with DNA testing as an official objective.

We all have experiences with good vs. careless service, and nice advertisements and image -- versus actual service behind the scenes, as well as after sales service. DNA testing shouldn't be just all about making money. It is much more important in life than money.

This is why we have multiple safeguards as established and witnessed by our multiple professional certifications listed below, as well as our extra careful and transparent procedures, which should give you confidence in the results without a reasonable doubt.

Sometimes, counsel and clear explanations are also needed, in both native English and native Thai.

The cost for a personal paternity test is 11,800 baht for father and child, a price which is all inclusive in the greater Bangkok metropolitan region, and the time for results is normally between 5 and 10 days, usually around 7 days. No surprises later, this is all inclusive. Optionally, if you also want to test the mother, so there are 3 DNA profiles instead of 2, then the cost would be an extra 2500 baht, so it would be 11,800 + 2500 = 14,300 baht total.

"... After spending a long time surfing the internet and making numerous phone calls, I was more confused than when I started. ... Thankfully, I came across ... Mark the owner of the company who explained the whole process in plain English to me and was understanding of my circumstances ... He managed to customize a service for me that was simple yet discreet. ... Talk about service!"
- William M. (American expat in Isaan, Thailand)

Our DNA Paternity Testing Solution in Thailand

We are an American and Thai owned company which collects DNA samples for testing in an American laboratory, as the Thailand corporate partner of a leading USA based laboratory, the DNA Diagnostics Center (DDC), which has been doing DNA relationship testing (such as paternity tests) since 1996, and has multiple safeguards against both human and laboratory error as achieved by their multiple certifications and professional laboratory inspections below. We also have methods to assure you that your DNA sample maintains its integrity.

You can speak face to face with our American expat physicist in or office or reach him by phone at other times. He came to Thailand from Washington, D.C., in 1994, because the American government's Asia Regional Office is in Bangkok, Thailand. Instead of eventually going back, he started a family in Thailand and has lived continuously in Thailand since that time. He has experience in investigations in Thailand going back to the 1990s.

He dealt with DNA testing here for the first time in 1996, using a variety of laboratories until choosing the DDC for its quality, support, and promptness.

The DDC laboratory is accredited by the American Association of Blood Banks (AABB), the main agency which certifies DNA laboratories in the USA. However, our laboratory exceeds AABB certification in many ways.

For example, in order to dramatically reduce the chances of human error, the DDC laboratory splits your DNA samples into two independent teams who come up with results separately. If the results are not the same, then the test is rejected and new samples must be provided. (This is extremely rare, by the way, due to the other safeguards listed below.) The AABB does not require that every case is tested twice, and most laboratories just test a sample only once, unless there is an exclusion. We know of no other laboratory which tests all incoming samples by two independent teams.

It is not required for a laboratory to have additional certifications, but our laboratory has a long list of additional certifications, as listed on our home page.

The report comes from the USA in the form of a PDF file which we give to you by email, printed paper, and/or chat app.

The report shows the laboratory results clearly, your DNA beside that of the child and optionally the mother, so that you can see clearly how it compares and how we calculate the results. It is normally 99.99+% probability of being the father or else 0% probability (not the father). You will receive truly calculated numbers, not just claims that we can prove 99.999999% and then such as statement. We even show you how we calculate your probability of paternity on the laboratory report, in detail.

You can also come to our office to witness the login to the laboratory to track your case, if you wish. These are at your option. If you are worrying at all, then it is best if you exercise these options for peace of mind. That's what you're paying for, and we strive to be the best.

Please feel free to ask questions and expect clear answers, because we want you to have total peace of mind for the rest of your life. This is our job, that's a purpose our company exists for, and you should not feel intimidated or stonewalled by your service provider.

If it is not convenient for you to come to our offices on Sukhumvit soi 2, then we can send one of our staff to your location to collect the samples. It often is not convenient to take a baby across town, much less in from another province, so it may be much better for us to come to your location. This is done at no extra charge in the Bangkok metropolitan region. Outside of Bangkok, there is a reasonable extra charge for our staff to travel to your location.

The time between giving your DNA samples and the final report is usually between 5 and 9 calendar days, depending on public holidays, weekends, and some other factors. Always ask first, because if a service provider takes 30 to 45 days, you may wonder about how your DNA samples are handled during all that time. See also our website section on "How DNA Tests Work", because it normally should take 2 days in the laboratory, and can be done in 1 day.

All laboratory testing is done in the central Fairfield, Ohio, USA laboratory. We are their Corporate Partner in Thailand for the DDC, and handle cases within Thailand.

Even samples from the UK are shipped to the USA laboratory. For example, the DDC also has a UK website, and the Thai language page has our company address and phone number as the point of contact in Thailand.

Samples from many countries in the world are shipped to the DDC central laboratory in the USA, because DNA is a very important matter in life and the DDC does it right without shortcuts.

Our company in Thailand handles inquiries in Thailand from all kinds of entities, stands by the report, and explains things, in both native Thai and native English, clearly. Of course, the Thai entities speak in Thai, call a domestic phone number in our local time zone, and expect an objective third party domestic professional company to stand by the report.

We can handle both Thailand and overseas entity requirements.

We provide both the original English laboratory report and a Thai translation. Notably, our founder also co-founded a professional Thai-English translation company (Export Quality Services Co., Ltd.) in 2002 for the purpose of quality control in language translation between Thai and English, as you can see on that website, www.ThaiEnglish.com , and you may note that we both have the exact same address, co-located with us on the top floor of our office building. We are able to handle your translation needs, too.

Further, if you need advice, you may also notice that our company's American co-Director has been working in Thailand for more than 20 years (came from Washington, D.C.), and has maintained the website www.ThailandGuru.com since the year 2000 which gives a wide range of advice for expats. Yes, same address.

We are well established and well known.

Alleged Father, Child, and Optional Mother

At the minimum, we need DNA samples from the child and the alleged father.

A DNA sample from the mother is not necessary but is encouraged if the mother is cooperative. The cost to you is the same whether or not a DNA sample is taken from the mother. (We don't want to discourage inclusion of the mother for cost reasons, and the extra cost to us is not so much, considering all other costs, so we don't charge you any more.) The laboratory report is a little bit clearer to a novice if it shows the mother's DNA, too.

The result is either of the following:

1. The alleged father is "excluded", i.e., 0% chance of paternity

   or

2. The alleged father is an "included" with a probability of paternity over 99.99% minimum (and usually higher, such as 99.999...%)

The exact percentage varies from case to case, as some people have more common DNA "alleles" than other people. See our page on How DNA Testing Works. However, we test a minimum of 20 standard locations ("loci") on the DNA, and as many additional DNA loci as may be necessary until the probability of paternity is at least 99.99% . (Usually, 20 loci are more than enough except in unusual cases of mutations.)

We have seen laboratories guaranteeing very high percentages, such as 99.999999...%, whereby customers may think that a laboratory which can guarantee a higher percentage is a better laboratory. Actually, the opposite may be true. How do they calculate that percentage? Or did they make it up for purely marketing reasons? Do they show you how they came to that number? We can sit down with you and your report and show you exactly how we came up with the % probability number on your report, and you can do a manual calculation yourself based on all the numbers we show you.

We have seen reports from different laboratories for the same customer whereby different laboratories gave very different % probability results, based on the same DNA profile data! Obviously, there are questionable calculations there.

99% is good enough for most people, but the question becomes one of honesty.

As our laboratory is so old and large, we have private DNA profiles of an extremely large number of people so that we have an extensive database of how common or rare different alleles are in the human population. This allows us to calculate a more accurate % probability in our DNA tests of all kinds.

We now test a minimum of 20 loci for each case. DNA testing laboratories usually test 16 loci. This is fairly standard. In fact, from laboratory to laboratory, the 16 loci are often the exact same, or sometimes 14 of the 16 will be the exact same (see our section on How DNA Testing Works) but without AABB certification, a laboratory could use any loci they want. Even among AABB certified labs, many of the loci tested may vary from laboratory to laboratory. It is best if the extra loci tested are where there is a lot of varioation between humans.

If you want to increase the probability even higher, then we can test 25 or 36 loci to drive the probability of paternity up even higher, but the cost is higher. Normally, 16 to 20 loci is enough.

The result is normally over 99%, or else 0%. If the man is not the father, then it becomes abundantly clear very quickly.

What about other errors?

If samples are contaminated, that shows very clearly in the laboratory and we will collect another set of samples and test them at no additional cost. We've never had contamination or any other problem when our staff collected samples, but we've had problems with some "do it yourself" samples mailed in to us.

If the samples get mixed up, that usually becomes apparent in the laboratory analysis. The gender gets checked for each person to make sure there is no obvious mixup. If a result states that the father and mother are related but the child is not, obviously there was a mixup. We are very careful and have an established process for collecting samples, whereby our staff have never had samples mixed up which we collect ourselves. However, we've had anomalies from customers who have taken their own samples and mailed them in to us by Thai Post or had somebody else carry them to our office. (For example, we had a do-it-yourself case where the envelope with the father's name on it had only samples from a female as revealed by the laboratory, and no samples from the mother were provided in that case. Of course, we issued no report and informed the alleged father of this problem.) We won't issue a report if we observe something which looks wrong.

The final report is signed off by a qualified Ph.D. Laboratory Director of the DDC lab in the United States of America.

Our physicist in our Bangkok office can answer your questions and explain things.

For more information, you may want to see our page on How DNA Testing Works.

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