Genetic Diseases Identified In The Newfoundland
And How To Try To Prevent Them By Better Newfoundland Breeding Practices
In the Newfoundland dog there are many genetic and hereditary diseases which have been identified through veterinary studies and research. Most of these diseases have either polygenic or undetermined modes of inheritance, meaning the way they occur is not fully understood. A few have recessive genes involved, very few are dominant genes. If the problems were all caused by dominant genes it would be extremely simple to rid the breed of a particular problem, but this is not the case.
As responsible Newfoundland breeders, what we do here at Cedar Valley is test for what we can, and "assume" that all dogs are carriers for diseases or hereditary problems that they produce.
One of the cardinal rules of breeding is:
DO NOT BREED AFFECTED DOGS.
While we NEVER breed affected dogs, the problems occur in what to do with the dogs that PRODUCE a problem that they themselves do not have.
At this time, the prevailing attitude seems to be
"Act like everythings fine and DONT TALK about the problems our dogs produce"!!!!!!
As anyone who knows purebred dogs can attest, this plan has done immeasurable harm to not only the Newfoundland, but to ALL breeds.
Since the foremost scientists and researchers in the field of genetics cannot tell us the mode of inheritance, there is no sure fire way to decrease disease in the Newfoundland, but there are some very promising "educated guesses" put forth by scientists and researchers.
One of the most promising ideas is to identify suspected carriers of genetic diseases and problems.
What this means is that if a dog produces a disease it does not have itself, we consider it to be a carrier for that disease.
While not 100% scientifically provable, this is the best advice we now have and is definitely better than breeding blindly with NO idea of what problems our dogs produce!!.
What this means practically, is that if a dog with normal eyes produces a pup with Juvenile Cataracts ( a known hereditary problem) you would consider him to be a carrier for J.C.
As a carrier, you would not mate him to a bitch that has also produced a pup with J.C.
While we dont fully understand the mode of inheritance for juvenile cataracts, we DO know that these two dogs have produced a case, so somewhere both dogs must carry a gene for J.C.
We dont have to fully understand the mode of inheritance to make an educated guess that these 2 dogs have a higher chance of producing a pup that has J.C if they are mated to each other.
Currently, Newfoundland breeders either do not talk about the problems their dogs produce, or refuse to admit that they produce any problems at all.
Most research concludes that EVERY dog in EVERY line carries for AT LEAST 5 genetic diseases. In some breeds the number is substantially higher, and the Newfoundland is one of those breeds. So you can easily see why trying to find a "disease free" dog is a losing proposition!!!!!
Our best chance of controlling gentic disease lies in beginning to admit that it DOES occur and identify which dogs produce what defects.
Our goal shouldnt be to ostracize those Newfoundlands and Newfoundland breeders, but to make use of the information we can get by carefully monitoring the genetic diseases and defects produced by our dogs.
By using this information, we can get a sense of the genetic makeup behind an individual animal.
Wouldnt you rather KNOW what problems a specific dog produces than have someone tell you they produce NONE (when you KNOW this cannot possibly be true!!!)
I bet at this point you think the solution is to spay or neuter the dogs that produce genetic disease, right???
WRONG!!!!
If every dog carries for at least 5 genetic defects, WHAT dogs will you use if you spay and neuter the carriers???
To spay and neuter every dog who is a carrier would leave NO breedable dogs for Newfoundland breeders to breed, since we know that each dog most likely carries for at least 5 defects!!
Keep in mind that in the majority of cases the only time a disease will present itself is if BOTH parents are carrying the gene.
If you KNOW what diseases your dogs produce, you can make informed decisions as to which dogs carry for what diseases and make breeding decisions based on not breeding proven carriers to each other!
Since MOST diseases are not caused by dominant traits, the ONLY way to eliminate a disease from a breed is to begin to make informed mating decisions about how you will use the carriers.
That being said, Newfoundland breeders HAVE to use common sense.
If you notice a higher than average number of puppies developing a genetic defect out of a certain dog, it WOULD make sense to spay or neuter that particular dog.
Note the use of the phrase "higher than normal"!!!!!
If the "normal" incidence of a genetic disease in a Newfoundland is 10%, and a dog is producing an incidence of, say, 20 % NO MATTER WHO YOU BREED IT TO, it would make sense to remove that dog from your breeding program.
Another problem we as Newfoundland breeders often come up against is the puppy owner who ends up with a puppy that has a problem. Often what happens is that this owner calls and tells us that their vet has said we should remove the parents from our program. Unfortunately, most vets are not also breeders!! If they were, they may have a different understanding of decreasing diseases and disorders.
If the "normal" prevelance of a disease or disorder is, say 25%, and this pup is the only one in a large litter with the problem.....what do you decide to do with those parents??? Does it really make any sense to remove them from a breeding program if they are not producing an abnormally high percentage of problems? Probably not!!
Again, to the owner of that puppy, that doesnt seem like a responsible answer, and yet is it REALLY an irresponsible decision to keep both parents in a breeding program?
The problems come from the fact that we are dealing with living things. Living things can and do have problems. There are certain percentages of problems that are considered "normal" within the Newfoundland breed. The goal is to decrease those percentages. At present, and for most diseases or disorders, ELIMINATING them isnt a realistic goal. So...if the "normal" percentage of a disorder one would expect to see if 25%, and 1 puppy out of 8 has developed that problem, the percentage for those parents is 12.5%....actually LOWER than what we would expect to see.
So, while we are saddened and disheartened that even this one puppy developed a problem, statistically, the parents are producing fewer problems than the breed average. In reality, it would be a BAD decision to remove those particular parents from a breeding program, since they are producing fewer than the expected percentage of problems.
Sadly, a fact of life with purebred dogs is that they can and will develop diseases and disorders. Some puppies will never have a problem, while others will develop serious problems. Unfortunately for both the Newfoundland breeder and the pet owner, we cannot tell WHICH pup will develop problems when they are young. It would be wonderful if we could predict at 8 or 10 weeks of age which pups would develop problems. That way, we could keep them here with us and never place them with a family. The cold hard facts are that we CAN'T tell.
While we as Newfoundland breeders try to decrease the chances that our pups will have problems, it is also up to the puppy consumer to make sure they are ready both emotionally and financially to take care of a problem if it does occur. That means researching the breed carefully to see what problems it is prone to. It also means carefully considering purchasing pet insurance to help out with expenses should they occur.
For more information on this method of breeding, please read
Control of Canine Genetic Disease by George A Padgett DVM.
For a list of some of the many genetic diseases identified in the Newfoundland, and whether or not the mode of inheritance is known click HERE.
As you skim the diseases you will begin to notice a trend:
Newfoundlands are known to suffer from skeletal, skin and heart issues, and these are the areas that contain the most problems
We wish it were possible to GUARANTEE that your puppy wont suffer from one, or several, of these problems, but we cant.
The best we can do is choose the biggest health problems and work to decrease their presence.
We know that Newfies suffer from hip dysplasia at an alarming rate. Even when using cleared parents, the rate of offspring that will develop hip dysplasia is depressingly high.
Nutritional and environmental controls can help decrease the numbers, but they will remain depressingly high because we dont know much about the modes of inheritance in relation to the environmental and nutritional effects.
With heart disease, we can have a better outcome than with hip dysplasia.
This is because we KNOW that if the parents are cleared of heart problems by a Cardiologist, the offspring have a better than average chance of not developing genetic heart issues.
Also, with heart disease the influence of environmental and nutritional factors is not as great as with hip dysplasia.
It is not a "given" that no problems will ever occur, but we can reduce heart defects greatly by using certified adults and having the offspring listened to carefully for heart murmurs before going to their new homes. Most genetic heart diseases produce a murmur as one of their symptoms. Many, many puppies are born with innocent heart murmurs that are the result of immature fetal circulation. These murmurs normally disappear on their own by 10-14 weeks of age. Any murmur still audible at 14 weeks of age needs to be checked by a Canine Cardiologist to determine the cause of the murmur. MOST of the time, the potential for problems can be determined by the severity of the heart murmur. Heart murmurs are graded on a scale of 1-6, with 1 being VERY hard to hear, and 6 being VERY loud. Grade 1 and 2 heart murmurs are not USUALLY indicators of serious heart disease, grade 3 heart murmurs can go either way, grade 4 usually indicates heart trouble to varying degrees, and grade 5 and 6 usually indicate major heart conditions. This is DEFINITELY not always true in every case, but most Cardiologists are much more concerned with severe, prominent murmurs than they are with very soft murmurs. With grade 4-6 murmurs, they will usually recommend an echocardiogram, even in an 8 week old puppy. With grades 1-3, they usually recommend waiting until 14-16 weeks of age to see if the murmur goes away.
Cystinuria has been the ONLY true success story as far as combating genetic disease in the Newfoundland.
In the Newfoundland, a DNA test is available that can determine an indiviuals genetic status.
The DNA test shows which dogs are carriers, which are affected and which are clear. By using this information to make informed breeding decisions, we can eradicate Cystinuria in the Newfoundland.
The problem is that large numbers of Newfoundland breeders do not choose to test their animals, partly because of the cost involved.
