The disease is common in a number of breeds with different forms
seen in different breeds, therefore there are likely several genetically distinct forms of the disease.
Moreover, if risk factors responsible for the disease are unique among breeds, we might have to consider the possibility that various new therapy approaches will have to be developed to effectively treat this
disease in different breeds of dogs.
Because dogs come
in different breeds with different temperaments and characteristics, it is important to understand several things that you may need to consider first before settling on a particular breed.
Congenital hypothyroidism occurs in different forms
in different breeds caused by various abnormalities of the hypothalmus, the pituitary gland, or the thyroid glans itself.
«In dogs, congenital hypothyroidism occurs almost entirely as a simple autosomal recessive trait, with mutations in different
genes in each different breed.
The absence of significant risk observed for hip and elbow dysplasia and patellar luxation as reported in the present study for the aggregate dog population reflects that variable
response in different breeds and in the variable statistical power based upon the number of cases for breeds.
Various modes of inheritance of epilepsy have been
deduced in different breeds, including simple autosomal recessive 3 with a sex - modifier 4, 5, polygenic recessive 6 with a sex - predilection 7, polygenic with a large contribution by a single autosomal recessive gene 8, and a multi-locus model 9.
With the different wants of owners and the different traits and
behaviors in different breeds, mixes or even different lines of purebred dogs, it is the unusual situation where the match between dog and owner is perfect.
Mixing in different breeds together creates an unstable one, because you can never know what behaviors and characteristics will manifest in a mixed breed.
However, as science identifies the genes responsible for the
disease in different breeds and as DNA screening tests become available, epilepsy might be included in a breed's CHIC criteria.
The methodology and data gained from this study will identify the level of diversity of DLA
alleles in different breeds and enhance the power of association studies between DLA haplotypes and canine diseases.