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JDCM And Xanthuria 2016-2020

ETT Breed club Health and Welfare Coordinator Lisa Dixon recently wrote an interesting piece for the ETT Breed Notes pages of Our Dogs on JDCM & Xanthinuria (autosomal recessive genetic disorders). The text is reproduced below.

Juvenile dilated cardiomyopathy (JDCM) occurs in Toy Manchester Terriers/English Toy Terriers. It results in sudden cardiac death at a young age, with dogs reported to have passed as early as 10 weeks of age and as late as 1 year of age. Affected dogs usually appear healthy with no signs of heart disease present before the sudden passing.

Hereditary xanthinuria results in excessive xanthine (a metabolic by-product) in the urine. This increases the risk for formation of xanthine bladder or kidney stones and can cause significant kidney disease. Xanthinuria is rare but has been found in many breeds including the Toy Manchester Terrier/English Toy Terrier.

Testing for both diseases is quick and relatively easy. A cheek swab is taken from the dog and the swab along with the dogs’ information is posted to The University of Minnesota. For the relevant documentation and testing protocol please refer to the following website. https://vetmed.umn.edu/research/labs/canine-genetics-lab/genetic-testing

The University has been kind enough to share their anonymised data with us. This data covers dogs from the US, Canada, Australia and Europe including the U.K. which were tested between 2016 – 2020. A total of 598 Dogs were tested for JDCM. 77.4% tested clear, 21.1% were carriers and 1.5% (9 dogs) was affected. For Xanthinuria a total of 524 dogs were tested. 78.2% tested clear, 21.4% were carriers and 0.4% (2 dogs) was affected. The U.K. dogs make up only a small portion of the total number of tested dogs. A total of 56 dogs from the U.K. were tested for JDCM and 34 tested for Xanthinuria.

89.3% was clear of JDCM with 10.7% carriers, 97.1% tested clear for Xanthinuria and the remaining 2.9% were carriers. None of the U.K. dogs tested were affected.

It would seem from this initial review that the U.K. population of ETT’s is significantly different to the global population tested. With this in mind and neither of these tests being currently mandatory in the U.K., surely it is imperative that all ETT’s in the U.K. are tested for both JDCM and Xanthinuria prior to breeding.

Carriers of the mutation do not develop the disease but can produce affected puppies if bred to another carrier (See description below). However, this does not mean that carriers need to be taken out of the breeding pool altogether. A carrier of the disease bred to a clear dog will not produce affected puppies.

Clear X Clear = 100% Clear

Clear X Carrier = 50% Carrier, 50% Clear

Carrier x Carrier = 50% Carrier, 25% Clear, 25% Affected

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