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For the AKC/OFA and
Canine Health Information Centre (CHIC) DNA repository
The aims are quite simple; to encourage owners/breeders to share
information about health results in a bid to reduce the
incidence of genetic disease and improve our breed’s health for
future generations.
What
is CHIC?
CHIC is a centralised canine
health database of consolidated health screening results from
multiple sources, and is sponsored by the American Kennel Club &
Orthopaedic Foundation for Animals (OFA). It provides a source
of health information for owners, breeders and scientists that
will assist in breeding healthy dogs.
What
are the objectives & advantages of CHIC?
· Facilitate
more rapid research progress by accelerating the sample
collection process
· Provide
researchers with optimised family groups.
· For
breeders, CHIC provides a reliable source of information
regarding dogs they may use in their breeding programs.
In the future, breeders can begin to analyse the pedigrees of a
proposed breeding for health strengths and weaknesses as well as
the traditional analysis of conformation, type, and performance
strengths and weaknesses.
·
Allow breeders to take
advantage of future DNA-based tests as they become available,
helping them to predict whether progeny will be clear, carriers,
or affected, for a particular condition.
· For
buyers, the CHIC program provides accurate information about the
results of a breeder’s health testing.
The probability that an animal will develop an inherited
disease is reduced when its ancestry has been tested normal;
however there are no guarantees, especially when the disease is
thought to be controlled by several different genes.
· Foster
a team environment between breeders and researchers, improving
the likelihood of scientific discovery.
· For
researchers, CHIC provides confidential and accurate health
information on multiple generations of dogs, leading to an
increased knowledge of health issues affecting all breeds of
dogs.
· For
everyone interested in canine health issues, CHIC is a tool to
monitor disease and measure progress.
Who
is eligible to participate?
Any Kennel Club registered
Malamute that has been hip scored and eye tested - whatever
their health status - can take part in the collection
clinic. The purpose of the database is to provide information
from both dogs affected with health issues and unaffected dogs
alike.
All dogs from whom samples are
submitted, will receive ‘CHIC numbers’ to indicate their
participation in the programme, however the CHIC number is
not a health clearance.
Why
should you take part?
As breeders and owners of
Alaskan Malamutes, we are the guardians of this breed and its
future. The onus is on us to take health issues within our
breed seriously and to promote the very best health and welfare
for our dogs in generations to come.
It is all too easy to be
complacent or to ignore the fact that these issues are relevant
to all of our dogs…..but, we should not be complacent, we should
encourage a pro-active stance in dealing with important health
concerns.
The more information we all
share with each other and the more education available, the
greater the benefit to our breed.
What
do you have to do to take part?
DNA will be taken from your dog
in the form of cheek swabs (4 per dog). This can be done at the
show, or kits can be supplied and returned.
In addition to the swabs, the
following are also required for each dog:
-
Completed application
form*
-
KC registration
document
-
Copy of KC/BVA hip
score certificate & last eye test certificate
-
Permanent form of
identification – microchip/tattoo**
-
Copy of 3-4
generation pedigree***
For any dogs affected by a
major health issue i.e. cataracts, hip dysplasia (total hip
score of 26+) etc, the submission to the CHIC DNA database is
free.
For any further information or
clarification on the clinic, or to ask any questions at all,
please don’t hesitate to contact Sharon at:
snowolf.mal@btinternet.com
Sharon Loades,
Woodstock House, Eastern Road, Holbeach St Marks, Lincolnshire
PE12 8EP
Please support
this event and take part with your dogs. There is no better way
to show your support for this breed than to look after their
health and their future, for generations to come.
If you have any
doubts about why you should participate in this DNA health
clinic, hopefully the following article will encourage you to
make the right decision.
Thank
you to George Packard for permission to use this article.
GDC (Institute for Genetic
Disease Control)
PO Box 177, Warner, NH 03278 Tel. 603-456-2350
gdc@conknet.com
http://www.gdcinstitute.org
How to Select
Against Genetic Disease with Knowledge, not Hope
Updated
July, 2003.
By George
Packard
georgepackard@conknet.com
(ã2003 George Packard)
(Permission for non-commercial electronic distribution granted.
Contact author for permission to reprint.)
High anxiety about genetic
diseases comes with the territory for anybody who is considered
to be a responsible breeder these days. In fact, if you are
breeding dogs, and you aren't worried about genetic disease,
you'd better hold off on that next mating until you've done your
homework.
Canine geneticists estimate
that the average purebred dog is carrying at least 4-5 defective
genes. To put it another way, when you are looking at that
gorgeous champion with normal hips you are also looking at a dog
who is carrying the genes that can cause several types of
genetic disease.
And unless his owner has a
detailed genetic pedigree on this dog and is willing to share it
with you, you have no way of knowing what those disease genes
are.
That champion may be carrying a
recessive gene for PRA, and if he's bred with a bitch who is
also carrying the PRA gene, the disease will show up in the
puppies.
And even though he has normal
hips, he may be carrying some of the recessive genes involved in
hip dysplasia. If you mate him with a bitch who is normal but
also carrying recessive genes for dysplasia, you'll suddenly
find yourself, heartbroken and bewildered, with dysplastic
puppies.
"I'm not worried," you may say,
" because soon we'll have DNA tests that will solve these
problems."
That's all well and good if
researchers have developed a test for the single gene disease
your line is troubled by. But if that test doesn't exist, are
you willing to wait five or ten years for your turn to come? And
that's assuming you'll persevere as a breeder beyond the
six-year average when most people give up, often because they
can't seem to stop producing puppies with genetic diseases.
Of course, we are only talking
about tests for single gene diseases. Most of the severe
diseases like hip and elbow dysplasia, cancer and epilepsy, are
polygenic, caused by the complex interplay of many genes, and no
researchers have come close to developing a polygenic gene test.
Are you willing to wait 20
years for a gene test for hip dysplasia? Are you willing to
watch another 30 years go by with no significant decrease in hip
dysplasia among purebred dogs?
Breeders in Sweden in 1976
weren't willing to wait, and so they set up an open registry and
started screening all their dogs. By 1989 they had achieved a 50
percent decrease in moderate to severe hip dysplasia in almost
all breeds ("Breeding Healthier Dogs in Sweden": Ake Hedhammar,
Tijdschrift voor Diergeneeskunde, April 1991).
What is the secret of this
astonishing success? Nothing more profound than the fact that
each breeder made it his or her business to find out where the
carriers and affecteds were in a dog's close family — siblings,
half-sibs, offspring, parents and parents' siblings. Using
relatively simple methods, they could then predict the risk of
inheritance of defective genes in any mating.
A few breed clubs in the US
have shown similar successes with targeted genetic diseases. But
the majority of our purebred dog breeders have shown little
interest in using open registries combined with proven breeding
methods to reduce genetic diseases.
Times are changing, however. In
1990 GDC (Institute for Genetic Disease Control in Animals,
www.gdcinstitute.org) established an international all-breed
open registry based on the success of the Swedish model. In the
following decade thousands of breeders began to register their
dogs and to make breeding decisions in accord with the knowledge
of where the carriers and affecteds were in a particular dog's
family.
Additionally, in 2001, OFA
began offering customers the option of sharing all results
openly on their web site, both unaffected and affected. OFA
reports a strong increase in the number of people taking
advantage of this option.
But the reality is that no open
registry, whether it is the international GDC registry, or an
open registry set up by a breed club, can be useful until it
contains significant number of dogs registered in close family
groups. Detractors of the open registry concept point to this
weakness but ignore the fact that even without enough
information in an open registry, breeders can still make
progress against genetic disease by doing the legwork
themselves.
In the summer of 2002, GDC
closed all of its registries except the Eye and Tumor
registries, and in early 2003 merged its database with OFA. OFA
has done a major upgrade of its web site to make gathering
information on family groups of dogs much easier.
What can you
do?
· Register
your dogs in an open registry and urge every breeder you know to
register also. If you register with OFA, choose the full
disclosure option.
· Learn
enough basic genetics so that you know AT LEAST how single
recessive modes of inheritance work.
· Do
whatever you have to do to find out where affecteds and carriers
are among a dog's siblings, offspring and other close relatives.
· Don't
breed to a dog whose owner will not supply that information.
· Screen
as many of your own dogs as possible, and supply that
information to buyers and breeders.
· Contact
your breed's health committee and the AKC and strongly urge them
to actively promote the use of open registries. Urge your health
committee to promote use of the full disclosure option at OFA.
For
specific information on breeding methods and genetic disease,
start with these books:
Control of Canine Genetic
Diseases; George A. Padgett, DVM, Howell Book House, New York,
1998
Genetics of the Dog; Malcolm B.
Willis, Howell Book House, New York, 1989
Genetics for Dog Breeders; 2nd
edition, 1992, Roy Robinson, Butterworth/Heinemann
Several very good articles on
basic genetics for dog breeding:
http://www.magmacom.com/~kaitlin/diversity/genetics.html
George Packard is director of
GDC, a non-profit organization devoted to providing information
and special open registry services to help reduce the prevalence
of canine genetic disease. GDC currently runs open Eye and Tumor
registries and develops and maintains specific registries for
breed clubs. Tel. 603-456-2350; Email:
gdc@conknet.com;
www.gdcinstitute.org
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