However, breeders and owners of Golden do need to be aware that these conditions exist, so that they can limit the use of mildly affected dogs, close
relatives of affected dogs, or repeated producers of these conditions, in pedigrees.
Near
relatives of affected dogs should not be bred to mates with a family history of any autoimmune disease.
First - step
relatives of affected dogs (parents, full and half siblings, and offspring) should be bred only to mates with pedigrees as clear of lymphoma as possible and who have no affected close relatives.
Although great strides have been made in identifying genetic markers and developing screening tests for many gene - based diseases, there are no test yet for PLN, PLE, or RD. Therefore, the breed club's health committee recommends that close relatives of dogs with these diseases not be bred and that periodic tests be done on
the relatives of affected dogs to determine if the disease is present and help establish a baseline for research.
Because different autoimmune diseases frequently occur within a family, healthy first - step
relatives of an affected dog (parents.
However, degenerative myelopathy is rare so it is only necessary to test near
relatives of an affected dog or one that is known to have at least one copy of the genetic mutation.
Not exact matches
Until I see such a hint
of familial relationship, I would guess it would be safe enough to breed
dogs that were
affected with this syndrome in the whelping box, but keep good records on future
relatives» puppies.
First - step
relatives (parents, full and half siblings, and offspring if any)
of affected dogs who will be used for breeding should be tested.
If you own a PRA
affected dog or a
relative of one, please help out with this research.
For
relative risk analysis to be useful, the knowledge
of all
affected and carrier
dogs is necessary.
Therefore, while prophylactic gastroplexy will probably help an individual
dog, it makes sense not to breed
dogs who are
affected or who are close
relatives of those suffering from GDV.
But without knowing about the
affected dogs in a pedigree, breeders are doomed to continue breeding proven carriers and other close
relatives, to the misfortune
of those who purchase puppies from these crosses.
This area becomes a bit more gray, because while there is a very good argument for not breeding close
relatives of affected and carrier
dogs, we also can not afford to eliminate all
dogs in the gene pool who meet this criterion — to do so would risk further constriction
of the gene pool to the point where the remaining «epilepsy - free» individuals might have higher - than - normal frequency for genes that contribute to some other genetic disorder.
Because
of the hereditary potential
of several
of these rare diseases, as well as the significant health impacts
of a few
of them, breeders need to make note when cases arise and avoid breeding
dogs with
affected relatives to each other.
When an
AFFECTED or a CARRIER is identified, conscientious owners make sure that others who have close
relatives of that
dog are notified.
Through this program, PWD owners and breeders contacted OptiGen to provide pedigrees, eye exam reports and blood samples from EOPRA
affected dogs and their
relatives to achieve a critical mass
of research material needed for a successful gene hunt.
Both
affected puppies were homozygous for this variant, and 16
relatives were heterozygous, while 288 unrelated Labrador Retrievers and 112
dogs of other breeds were wild - type.