Dog Breeding: A Promising Future?
By Anne Marie Rasmussen
According to OMIA (Online Mendelian Inheritance in Animals) there are currently 619 recognised traits or disorders in dogs. To put that in perspective, let’s compare the figure to some other animals. There are 443 known disorders in cattle, 315 in cats, 229 in sheep, 219 in horses and ok wait for this, a whopping 4000 in humans. Yes 4000 recognised traits and disorders! According to Dr. P. Mandigers, a specialist in internal
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medicine and neurology at the University of Utrecht’s Department of Clinical Science of Companion Animals all humans are the carriers of between 10 and 20 inherited disorders. On the other hand dogs are the carriers of approximately 5 inherited disorders. Well people must have more genes so that makes sense, right? Actually, again accord(Continued on page 5)