New database charts hereditary diseases in pedigree dogs and cats

The Expertise Centre for Genetics of Companion Animals, part of the University Clinic for Companion Animals, wants to effectively deal with health problems in the pedigree dog sector. In order to ensure that breeders can breed healthier dogs, the centre developed an objective system of measurement that charts the state of each breeds health. Veterinarians and other professionals can register data about animals and diseases in this database. The software then determines how often specific problems occur in each breed. The new measurement system will be going online this month.

“If we know which problems each breed suffers from, then we can investigate which genes are causing these problems”, says prof. dr. Jan Rothuizen, coordinator of the expertise centre. “We can then use this information later to develop very efficient DNA tests for hereditary diseases. Only then will it be possible to deploy successful policies to fight these diseases. By continuous measurement we will also be able to see if the breeding sector takes the problems seriously and responds by breeding healthily.”

Healthy breeding
There are approximately 29 million companion animals in the Netherlands, including 1.5 million dogs and 2.9 million cats. Hereditary diseases and harmful breed characteristics represent the biggest problems in the companion animals sector. In the media and in the public discourse these problems are getting an increasing amount of attention and it is also clear that changes to the breeding sector are necessary. After all, society wants healthy and social pedigree dogs and cats, and not companion animals with diseases.

New measurement system bundles knowledge
The Expertise Centre for Genetics of Companion Animals’ measurement system enables pedigree breeders to breed more healthily. It bundles knowledge of clinical genetics, population genetics and molecular genetics in order to optimally guide the breeding of healthy animals. In this way, one hopes to structurally improve the health, welfare and behaviour of pedigree dogs in the Netherlands.

Symposium 'Genetics for cynology'
On Wednesday 17 June the Expertise Centre for Genetics of Companion Animals organised a symposium ‘Genetics for Cynology’, in collaboration with the Dutch Kennel Club. The workshop dealt with various aspects of population genetics and molecular genetics and their application when breeding healthy pedigree dogs.

More information

Recently, the report ‘Incidentie van schadelijke raskenmerken en erfelijke gebreken bij populaties van gezelschapsdieren’ was published as part of a project carried out for the Ministry of Economic Affairs.

Read more about the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine at Utrecht University.