Articles

Prevalence and heritability of distichiasis in the English Cocker spaniel

Canine distichiasis is a well-known cause of ocular irritation and excessive lacrimation (secretion of tears) in the dog. The term distichiasis originates from the Greek words di and stichos meaning two and rows,...

Authors: Tanja Petersen, Helle Friis Proschowsky, Tommy Hardon, Søren Nyhuus Rasch and Merete Fredholm

Epidemiological associations between brachycephaly and upper respiratory tract disorders in dogs attending veterinary practices in England

Brachycephalic dog breeds are increasingly common. Canine brachycephaly has been associated with upper respiratory tract (URT) disorders but reliable prevalence data remain lacking. Using primary-care veterina...

Authors: Dan G. O’Neill, Caitlin Jackson, Jonathan H. Guy, David B. Church, Paul D. McGreevy, Peter C. Thomson and Dave C. Brodbelt

Ten inherited disorders in purebred dogs by functional breed groupings

Analysis of 88,635 dogs seen at the University of California, Davis Veterinary Medical Teaching Hospital from 1995 to 2010 identified ten inherited conditions having greater prevalence within the purebred dog ...

Authors: A. M. Oberbauer, J. M. Belanger, T. Bellumori, D. L. Bannasch and T. R. Famula

Analysis of DLA-DQB1 and polymorphisms in CTLA4 in Cocker spaniels affected with immune-mediated haemolytic anaemia

Cocker spaniels are predisposed to immune-mediated haemolytic anaemia (IMHA), suggesting that genetic factors influence disease susceptibility. Dog leukocyte antigen (DLA) class II genes encode major histocomp...

Authors: Anna J. Threlfall, Alisdair M. Boag, Francesca Soutter, Barbara Glanemann, Harriet M. Syme and Brian Catchpole

Identification of a novel frameshift mutation in the DMD gene as the cause of muscular dystrophy in a Norfolk terrier dog

A Norfolk terrier was referred to the Animal Health Trust neurology department with suspected dystrophin-deficient muscular dystrophy (DD-MD), which was confirmed by clinical workup and immunohistochemistry.

Authors: Christopher A Jenkins and Oliver P Forman

Strong selection for behavioural resilience in Australian stock working dogs identified by selective sweep analysis

Working dog handlers and breeders have strong opinions on characteristics that are desirable in the breeds that they use to handle stock. Most of these characteristics are related to conformation or behaviour....

Authors: Elizabeth R Arnott, Lincoln Peek, Jonathan B Early, Annie Y H Pan, Bianca Haase, Tracy Chew, Paul D McGreevy and Claire M Wade

Homozygosity mapping and sequencing identify two genes that might contribute to pointing behavior in hunting dogs

The domestic dog represents an important model for studying the genetics of behavior. In spite of technological advances in genomics and phenomics, the genetic basis of most specific canine behaviors is largel...

Authors: Denis A Akkad, Wanda M Gerding, Robin B Gasser and Jörg T Epplen

Prevalence of disorders recorded in Cavalier King Charles Spaniels attending primary-care veterinary practices in England

Concerns have been raised over breed-related health issues in purebred dogs, but reliable prevalence estimates for disorders within specific breeds are sparse. Electronically stored patient health records from...

Authors: Jennifer F Summers, Dan G O’Neill, David B Church, Peter C Thomson, Paul D McGreevy and David C Brodbelt

The challenges of pedigree dog health: approaches to combating inherited disease

The issue of inherited disorders and poor health in pedigree dogs has been widely discussed in recent years. With the advent of genome-wide sequencing technologies and the increasing development of new diagnos...

Authors: Lindsay L Farrell, Jeffrey J Schoenebeck, Pamela Wiener, Dylan N Clements and Kim M Summers

Development and validation of a diagnostic test for Ridge allele copy number in Rhodesian Ridgeback dogs

The breed-defining dorsal ridge in Rhodesian Ridgeback dogs is the result of a 133,000 base pair duplication on chromosome 18. Because this trait is dominant, heterozygous dogs cannot be discriminated from tho...

Authors: Jennifer Turner Waldo and Kasandra Santana Diaz

Prevalence and risk factors for mast cell tumours in dogs in England

Mast cell tumour (MCT) appears to be a frequent tumour type in dogs, though there is little published in relation to its frequency in dogs in the UK. The current study aimed to investigate prevalence and risk ...

Authors: Stephanie JW Shoop, Stephanie Marlow, David B Church, Kate English, Paul D McGreevy, Anneliese J Stell, Peter C Thomson, Dan G O’Neill and David C Brodbelt

Non-synonymous genetic variation in exonic regions of canine Toll-like receptors

Toll-like receptors (TLRs) are pattern recognition receptors (PRRs) considered to be the primary sensors of pathogens in innate immunity. Genetic variants could be associated to differences in breed innate imm...

Authors: Anna Cuscó, Armand Sánchez, Laura Altet, Lluís Ferrer and Olga Francino

A retrospective study of the prevalence of the canine degenerative myelopathy associated superoxide dismutase 1 mutation (SOD1:c.118G > A) in a referral population of German Shepherd dogs from the UK

Canine degenerative myelopathy (CDM) is an adult onset, progressive neurodegenerative disease of the spinal cord. The disease was originally described in the German Shepherd dog (GSD), but it is now known to o...

Authors: Angela L Holder, James A Price, Jamie P Adams, Holger A Volk and Brian Catchpole

Syringomyelia: determining risk and protective factors in the conformation of the Cavalier King Charles Spaniel dog

Syringomyelia (SM) is a painful neurological condition, prevalent in brachycephalic toy breeds including the Cavalier King Charles Spaniel (CKCS). In these breeds, SM is typically secondary to Chiari-like Malf...

Authors: Thomas J Mitchell, Susan P Knowler, Henny van den Berg, Jane Sykes and Clare Rusbridge

Searching for "monogenic diabetes" in dogs using a candidate gene approach

Canine diabetes is a common endocrine disorder with an estimated breed-related prevalence ranging from 0.005% to 1.5% in pet dogs. Increased prevalence in some breeds suggests that diabetes in dogs is influenc...

Authors: Andrea D Short, Angela Holder, Simon Rothwell, Jonathan Massey, Rachel Scholey, Lorna J Kennedy, Brian Catchpole and William ER Ollier

Holding back the genes: limitations of research into canine behavioural genetics

Canine behaviours that are both desirable and undesirable to owners have a demonstrable genetic component. Some behaviours are breed-specific, such as the livestock guarding by maremmas and flank sucking seen ...

Authors: Diane van Rooy, Elizabeth R Arnott, Jonathan B Early, Paul McGreevy and Claire M Wade

An analysis of the inheritance pattern of an adult-onset hearing loss in Border Collie dogs

During routine diagnostic BAER testing of dogs of various breeds for private owners at the Western College of Veterinary Medicine in Saskatoon, it became evident that some individual dogs developed hearing los...

Authors: Sheila M Schmutz

What can cohort studies in the dog tell us?

This paper addresses the use of cohort studies in canine medicine to date and highlights the benefits of wider use of such studies in the future. Uniquely amongst observational studies, cohort studies offer th...

Authors: Carys A Pugh, Barend M de C Bronsvoort, Ian G Handel, Kim M Summers and Dylan N Clements

A novel mutation in TTC8 is associated with progressive retinal atrophy in the golden retriever

Generalized progressive retinal atrophy (PRA) is a group of inherited eye diseases characterised by progressive retinal degeneration that ultimately leads to blindness in dogs. To date, more than 20 different ...

Authors: Louise M Downs, Berit Wallin-Håkansson, Tomas Bergström and Cathryn S Mellersh

The genetics of eye disorders in the dog

Inherited forms of eye disease are arguably the best described and best characterized of all inherited diseases in the dog, at both the clinical and molecular level and at the time of writing 29 different muta...

Authors: Cathryn S Mellersh

Approaches to canine health surveillance

Effective canine health surveillance systems can be used to monitor disease in the general population, prioritise disorders for strategic control and focus clinical research, and to evaluate the success of the...

Authors: Dan G O’Neill, David B Church, Paul D McGreevy, Peter C Thomson and Dave C Brodbelt

Every dog has its day: a new journal for canine genetics and epidemiology

Authors: William ER Ollier and Lorna J Kennedy