genetic diseases
There are breed clubs that have successfully decreased the instance of congenital disease through careful testing and breeding practices.
For instance, the Mini Bullterrier is known for PLL: primary lens luxation (congenital disease of the eye). As of the fall of 2009, genetic markers for the disease were noted in certain populations, and through opening of the stud books to smaller standard Bullterriers, they are on the road to decreasing the instance of the disease in the breed.
Most of the effects of such efforts are based upon breeder and club compliance. Some breed clubs have even decreased the levels of DJD drastically in populations by requiring testing to register dogs.
Diseases will always be there, and new ones will always "pop up" but responsible breeding will help lessen such issues.
We had Phi Zeta Research Day at the University the last fall, which is an event in which all of the Veterinary research being conducted at the CVM is presented. Many of the over 90 studies currently being conducted involved congenital disease research. I witnessed some remarkable work, some even identifying the genetic component of cancer predisposition. Good stuff.
Replies (5)
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is it possible to wipe out all genetic diseases through selective breeding? or will some continue to re-occur regardless? i got surgery gotta type 1 handed dont want to type alot so hopefully u get wat i mean
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They'll always pop up, but it should be rarely. Bad breeding can just favour hereditary diseases, concentrate them in the genepool to the point where they pop up with way too much frequency.
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I think as we develop easier cheaper methods of testing for genetic diseases. Eliminating harmful genetic conditions should be easy in a few generations since you can even see recessive genes with a test. The problem will be breeds that have genetic diseases written into their standards, and new mutations that will continue to pop up and new tests will have to be created to eliminate those. If we can get the rate of genetic disease to or below the frequency of a wild population we should be doing great.
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survival of the fittest, not nice to the individual but nice to the species. you should see the condition of some of these feral dogs in my area
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There are breed clubs that have successfully decreased the instance of congenital disease through careful testing and breeding practices. For instance, the Mini Bullterrier is known for PLL: primary lens luxation (congenital disease of the eye). As of the fall of 2009, genetic markers for the disease were noted in certain populations, and through opening of the stud books to smaller standard Bullterriers, they are on the road to decreasing the instance of the disease in the breed. Most of the effects of such efforts are based upon breeder and club compliance. Some breed clubs have even decreased the levels of DJD drastically in populations by requiring testing to register dogs. Diseases will always be there, and new ones will always "pop up" but responsible breeding will help lessen such issues. We had Phi Zeta Research Day at the University the last fall, which is an event in which all of the Veterinary research being conducted at the CVM is presented. Many of the over 90 studies currently being conducted involved congenital disease research. I witnessed some remarkable work, some even identifying the genetic component of cancer predisposition. Good stuff.
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