Making genetics better

Making Genetics better

Renal Dysplasia:

A health survey published in 2014 by The Kennel Club (UK) lists kidney failure as the 4th leading cause of death among 5,663 dogs from 179 breeds. The proportion of dogs that died from kidney failure in this survey was 4.22%.  The age of onset from this survey was 7-13 years of age, with a median age of 10 years. 

​Many breeds of dogs have a high frequency of the RD mutant alleles. Unless the RD mutant alleles are eliminated from breeding populations, end stage kidney failure in canines will continue to plague the future generations of dogs.

Countless adult dogs will have their lives needlessly shortened.

Testing our dogs:
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We began our RD testing here a few weeks ago by testing Hunter & Hattie. Both of them came back as carriers. As such they each have one copy of the RD mutation.

So how do we work to clear this? Here is how.​

For breeds with a high frequency of a mutant RD mutations:

1. My dog is a clear. Examine this dogs good and bad traits. Can he/she be bred to a carrier in your kennel that can complement their traits? Yes. At this time, many breeds with RD have an very high frequency of the mutation, and in order to protect the gene pool, this type of breeding is necessary.

    You keep the clear puppy from this cross that has the traits from both parents that you were hoping to get.

2.  My dog is a carrier. Ideally, this animal should be bred to a clear with traits that would complement this animal. - Clear progeny from this cross can be kept for future breeding. There is a 50% chance in this case of producing a clear in the first generation. If no other options exist, this animal can be bred to another carrier. In this case, your chances of producing a clear for your next generation are 25%. Likewise, there is a 25% chance that a animal that is homozygous for the mutant allele will be produced from this breeding.

3. My dog is homozygous for mutant alleles, but otherwise is sound in body and temperament, and brings positive traits to the breed. This is a two-step breeding to get a clear. This dog should be bred to a clear, if possible. All of the puppies in the first generation will be carriers. No need to DNA test at this point. A carrier puppy from the first generation of breeding can now be used in the second generation to produce clears as in example 2.


DOWN THE ROAD, your ultimate goal is to breed clear to clear so that you have eliminated RD from your kennel without having to compromise the gene pool.

​Breeding Outcomes:
PARENTS & PROGENY

Clear X Clear ALL CLEAR
  
Homozygous mutant allele X Homozygous mutant allele ALL HOMOZYGOUS FOR THE MUTANT ALLELE
  
Clear X Carrier 1/2 Clear : 1/2 Carrier
  
Carrier X Carrier 1/2 Carrier: 1/4 Clear: 1/4 Homozygous mutant allele
  
Clear X Homozygous mutant allele : All Carrier
  
Homozygous mutant allele X Carrier 1/2 Carrier : 1/2 Homozygous mutant allele

The above information is how we handle all anomalies that come up in a breeding program. We breed those who are affected or carrier to a collie who is clear. This gives us clear to move forward with and makes our lines stronger with each item we clear. 

Thanks for following, 
Suzi & Marc

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All information for this was obtained from www.dogenes.com