Sunday, April 15, 2018

Dog Killing Genes

Man's best friend: a species that some find adorable while others may resent (excuse the cat lovers), but one thing is for sure, they're domestication into tame pets has been detrimental to their health. Purebred dogs arose from inbreeding in order to retain/change the different characteristics associated with a particular species. For example, Bull Terriers are the most selective to breed. They look nothing like their kind in the early 1900s due to such breeding.


One such disease within the Bull Terrier has been identified as an Autosomal Recessive gene killer, which means that it can happen on any chromosome with them being the same copy. Acrodermatitis is a lethal disorder that affects up to 70% of dogs. The way it is inherited is similar to that of consanguineous families. Such matings higher risk for mutation since they share so much of the same blood and DNA. Sadly even with such a discovery in the genetic community nothing can be done to help such a disorder. The problem with species such as the Bull Terrier is that they have little variation in their gene pool. At this point it might be easy to say that they have nothing but recessive genes in their DNA, but in order to rid of such a problem, breeders need to make these mutations rare through either more mixed breeds or some other alternate form of preserving purebreds. 

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2 comments:

  1. It's a shame that nothing more can be done to help their disorder, and hopefully there can be more research done to prevent further harm.

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  2. I find this discovery very interesting. I find it is sad that there really is not anyway to fix this disorder. I hope they find a way to stop this from happening to other breeds of dogs as well.

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