Posted: Mon Dec 17, 2007 10:03 pm Post subject: Calling all Epileptic Labs, your breed needs you!
In Novenber the KC held a breeders Symposium, at least in part about Epilepsy.
There was not a lot of info about the management of Epilepsy, being a breeders symposium the accent was more on prevention. They have been looking at modes of inheritance, and it would appear that it could well be different in the various breeds. In Labradors it's now thought it "May" be a polygenic recessive. Not that this helps the owner of the Epileptic dog, but it does bring us a step nearer to a DNA test, and that brings me to the reason for this post.
Research scientists at the Animal Health Trust, together with others in Europe are hunting through the genome to find the gene sequence responsible, and if found it will enable us to eliminate at least this form of epilepsy. What they are doing is comparing the genome of clear dogs with the genome of affected dogs, and this is where you come in. They are looking for DNA samples, either blood sample or cheek Swab from dogs suffering from Epilepsy. Cheek swabs are easy and something you can do yourself at home. (I did cheek swabs from Anna for the HD research.)
If you think you might be able to help please contact either:-
I think it likely all the research is linked Evelyn, but this is being done by the "Animal Health Trust" which is part of the Royal Veterinary Collage at Cambridge. It's my understanding that several European countries are collaborating on this.
Hope there is a good response from LF members. I think we will all want to help as much as possible, to get to the bottom of epilepsy in labs. I know the cheeck swab is very easy to do - that's what I did for the the project in Minnesota, where they think they have found the mutant gene responsible for EIC. Its non-invasive and doesn't harm the dog in any way.
As there are quite a few members with epileptic dogs I think there will be quite a few people keen to help.
Thanks Fay. The more different samples they have the better. The AHT are working hard on DNA test and have recently (May) brought out a test for PRA in Springers.
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