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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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.
ReplyDeleteI 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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