Hello,

I've been reading the message boards and was wondering if someone could tell me if PHPV is a hereditary condition? Also are you able to perform DNA tests to acertain if a certain dog/bitch carries the disease? (if it is hereditary).

Many thanks.

Mark

Hi Mark. As far as eye testing is concerned there are only two breeds affected, Dobermann's and Staffies but it can occur anywhere. Mode of inheritance is obscure but the genetic data points to a DOMINANT gene!!! So yes, It would appear there is no doubt it is herediary

Best wishes, John

<<but it can occur anywhere.>>

Perhaps that is what is wrong with my neck :D

~~
Hi Mark,

There are no DNA tests for this as far as I am aware at the moment, not even for humans who can also suffer from it..

This seems to mean, unfortunately that two apparently clear dogs can produce affected offspring.

Would you like to register so we can discuss this problem and your questions?

Christine

Could be your neck Christine! :P:

As you say, I don't think there is a DNA test yet. I've spent the last few days searching the internet for info on DNA for a club news letter and dont remember seeing that one. Everyone is offering tests for determining Labrador colours but the amount of useful stuff is at the moment quite limited.

Best wishes, John

Hello,

Thanks for your replies, I am merely curious. How would one go about eradicating it from the breed? Obviously you wouldnt perform a repeat mating of the dog and bitch that produced the pups with the condition but is there anyway of finding out which side it came from? Or is it a case of you remove both sire and dam from the breeding population? Also how prevalent is it?

Thanks

Mark

Because the condition is only found in any numbers in two breeds (and only in very few of these!) it means obviously enough that when in other breeds there is such only a very small number of affected dogs. This is where knowledge of the breed comes in. Anyone with a database of the breed and knowledge of failures to this complaint could check back through the ancestors and in all possibility find a common denominator and also other possible carriers to stay clear of. (BreedMate is ideal for this!) That way they might be able to determine which side it came from. I would definitely not use either the sire or dam again at least until I had some idea of the carrier. (With a recessive it would have to be both but this seems to be dominant)

In a numerically large breed there might be a case for carrying on using the unaffected offspring because the gene pool is large enough for it to be unlikely to come across another carrier when picking a stud dog. But again, it could be argued that in such a breed there are plenty of dogs to breed from without taking the risk, however small that risk is!

In a numerically small breed the argument would have to be that the gene pool is just not large enough to deal with possible carriers and that NOTHING of the possibly affected dogs should ever be used again at least until a DNA test is available to give a definitive answer.

We keep saying on here about how important breed knowledge is when selecting a stud dog but at times I think some people think we are just trying to "Preserve the Mystique" Breeding dogs is easy, they can do that without our help! Breeding good dogs is another matter!!!

Just my thoughts on the matter which others may or may not agree with.

Best wishes, John

Thanks John,

Im curious about the BreedMate database you mentioned. Could you possibly tell me a bit more about it as I have never heard about it before. Is it available to view on the internet?

I was also looking for a possible database of current hipscores in labradors (ie the dogs registered name and hip score). Would you be able to tell me if such a thing exists?

Thanks for your time.

Mark

BreedMate is just a database program which allows you to input the pedigrees of dogs plus any other info you want to store about them. (Put the name into a search engine like Google and you will find it) I stress, it's only the program, you have to put the info in. The KC do a database listing all dogs in a particular breed going back I believe 20 years but it is VERY expensive and if you think 20 years is possibly only 4 or 5 generations!!!

The only place to get hip scores and eye test results is by subscribing to the KC Breed Records Suppliment. (commonly known on here as the BRS)

With a breed as big as Labradors, (36000 registered in just one year!) it is very difficult constructing a full database. I only carry the lines I'm interested in and if I run into a new line then its into the research mode again to try and find all I can about that line.

Regards, John

Hi Mark

Which breed is it you are interested in as I study the pedigrees and health of Dobermanns. As John said, Breedmate is a pedigree programme which you purchase "empty" and then fill it up yourself with your chosen breed.

One of the difficulties with PHPV is that so few dogs are tested. First we would need to find out the extent of the problem which would mean testing every single puppy. Dobe pups can be tested for this as a litter between 4 and 12 weeks of age before they leave the breeder and after this as individual dogs.

This does not help researchers such as myself though because the puppy examinations are not published, only the adults and although some people who test send me copies of their results they are very few and far between.

Many breeders will tell you that they don't test because they don't have a problem - but they can't know this unless they test - somewhat of a Catch 22 situation and just testing one pup from a litter does not really give a true picture

Admin posted a link recently to a PHPV web page - did you find that?

Christine