AKC Canine Health Foundation Conference 1997
Spinone Health Committee Member Notes by Kathleen Kerr, MD

On November second and third a mixture of scientists and one representative from each AKC recognized National Parent Club (about 300 people in all) converged on St. Louis for the second national Canine Health Foundation Conference, hosted extravagantly by Purina (I gained five pounds on the non-stop food.)  It is difficult to express how exciting it was to be there at this point in time, and any second thoughts I had about footing the bill for the plane vanished in a whirlwind of information and cutting edge canine molecular biology that will ultimately have profound implications for breeders and owners alike. I can't begin to present everything that transpired, so I will concentrate on the major focus of the meeting which had to do with the cracking of the canine genetic code and some thoughts on the implications for breeders and puppy buyers alike.

One half of the conference consisted of lectures on various canine diseases, nutrition, fund raising for research, breed health surveys, how the AKC's Canine Health Foundation can assist the parent clubs, and much, much more. The other half consisted of an international meeting of scientists involved in mapping the canine genome (finding the relationships between individual genes on the chromosomes) which will enable breeders to define some of the diseases their breeding stock is carrying and breed away from theses diseases. Previously it took many litters of even generations to figure out the mode of transmission of a genetic disease, now there are tests being developed which can be used prior to breeding to define the status of the potential parents or even the puppies at birth by defining which dogs are totally clear of an Autosomal Recessive disease, which are carriers and will never show signs of the disease ( because autosomal recessive diseases are not expressed unless one abnormal gene from each parent is present. Carriers have one abnormal gene and one "normal" gene and are therefore PHENOTYPICALLY normal but GENOTYPICALLY are a time bomb for the next generation. The animals who inherit two abnormal genes for the condition will develop the disease but sometimes not until past maturity and after they have had puppies* Prior to the development of these DNA tests, test breedings would a have to be conducted to decide if the parent was infected. Tests like these already exist for Von Willigrand's disease (a clotting disorder) and X-linked Immunodeficiency disease. (If these diseases sound familiar it is because they exist in human medicine as well. AS a matter of interest, 85% of the canine genome overlaps with the human genome! The speaker went on to say that out of 300 diseases in dogs almost all were found in humans.) These tests work well for single gene mutations but not for polygenic (one effect controlled by many genes) such as hip dysplasia. So how would you, the breeder, use this tool? Suppose one of your breeding stock is healthy but you find out that a relative if the dog is diagnosed with Von Willibrand's, (Note: there are two forms of the disease, a mild form that affects Dobermans and is only a problem during trauma or surgery,and another much more lethal. We are discussing the former,) You can test your dog and find out whether your animal is carrying the gene for the disease. If your animal is "clear" you can mate it to any dog without any of the pups having the disease {although some will be Carriers.) If your animal is a carrier , you should only breed to clear or consider not breeding at all if the disease is a bad one. For me the notion of breeding the carriers came as a surprise, for by breeding clear to clear you could conceivably eliminate the disease, right? However, the epidemiologists [bought that this was not wise, especially with a mild disease and a small gene pool; limiting the breeding to the 20% or so clears may lose genes that may be desirable or even critical to the breed. (Note that this does in no way imply we should breed dogs with hip dysplasia, or even seemingly clear relatives of dogs with hip dysplasia, as canine hip dysplasia is polygenic and there exists no test for it with 100% predictability.) The aforementioned tests are available for only a few diseases now, and more of the genome must be mapped to come up with new ones. The expectation is that the entire map will be completed in less than two years, now that (and this nearly brought tears to my eyes to watch happen}the scientific community has agreed to cooperate and share their information and genetic material rather than patent their individual pieces as they originally intended. These tests are not be used for treatment, so the health of the dogs still all comes down to intelligent, responsibile breeding for which these tests will serve as invaluable tool-. The cost is settling out at about $100 per test, but compared to the price of buying back 4 or 5 diseased pups, it is cheap. BEFORE YOU CAN TEST, HOWEVER, YOU MUST KNOW WHAT TO TEST FOR. THIS IS WHY THE COLLECTION OF HEALTH DATA IS SO IMPORTANT.

We must find out what the genetic defects in our Spinoni are so we are not missing opportunities that currently exist, nor as a club missing out on a future opportunity to help direct research towards the diseases vitally important to our breed. The votes for and against making the Health Survey mandatory will be counted at the annual meeting* And mandatory or not, send in those surveys. Update them at critical times, if not every year. As we move from an '`ice cream)' to a recognizable breed, the health committee will be forthcoming with additional ways to collect this data (surveying vets, etc.) Meanwhile the Canine Health Foundation will be providing a standardized health form so that it can computerize all ARC breed data to look for trending and identify small groups with identical problems to pool their resources. Surveys will be available at the meeting' and will be mailed after that with the annual registration packets.

For the health of our dogs,

Kathleen Kerr

The Breed Health Committee consists of myself, John Kerr and Lena Amirian, with special thanks to retired member Melinda Cummings - Good Luck on your thesis.

Excerpted from
The Spinone Newsletter
February 1998, Vol. 9, No. 1