Diseases, genes, dog breeds and humans

Dogs are a gold mine when it comes to studying hereditary diseases. This is due to the relatively small gene pool within each breed, which makes it comparatively easy to pinpoint the gene(s) that increases the risk of developing the disease. The small gene pool is unfortunately also what makes diseases so common in pure bred dogs.

Documentary about what research in dogs can do for our understanding of hereditary diseases.

Documentary about what the small gene pool does to the dogs themselves.

Just recently, the gene for hereditary epilepsy was identified in Belgian shepherd dogs. Dogs that was homozygous (dogs that has the same gene on both chromosomes) for the particular gene had a 7-fold increase in risk of developing epilepsy. The gene is however also found to be homozygous in 1/5 of healthy Belgian shepherd dogs, so more research needs to be done. Epilepsy is very common in some breeds and in this particular breed, as many as 20% of the dogs have epilepsy. This can be compared to 1-5% of the human population. It is therefore quite clear that in order to save this breed, a reliable gene test needs to be developed.

One of the four Belgian Shepherd dogs, the Terveren. Photo from Wikipedia.

Source:

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/03/120323205337.htm