PRA testing for Labs

[Melanie Foster]

Question about who's more affected by PRA - mostly field labs, or is it showing up in the conformation lines as well? This is the case in goldens, mostly in field lines.

The reason I ask, is that NORCAL GRC is considering offering a 'clinic' to test for PRA and Pigmentary Uveitis to save costs for the owners by taking advantage of group submissions.

PU is now a big thing in conformation lines, but I haven't been following the discussions closely enough to know how much it is showing up in field lines.

Debbie,

There are now thought to be at least two, maybe three, forms of PRA. The form that is showing up in the field lines is prcd-PRA though even with all the Carriers that have shown up since the DNA test became available and thus the numerous breedings that must have done in the past between Carrier x Carrier (and worse) with such a small number of dogs showing clinical signs (I believe we are up to 3 total), there is some question as to how serious of an issue this really is.

Regarding holding a clinic, I am certainly all for it. There are two ways this can be done. If you are looking for dogs who have clinical signs (this is especially important for pigmentary uveitis where early detection can make treatment much more successful and hopefully spare dogs great pain), there would need to be an opthalmologist physically doing exams because there is still not a DNA test for PU. While it would be wonderful for signs of PU to be detected in its early stage, we are still not able to distinguish which dogs are Carriers of the gene.

To answer your question about PU in the field lines, we are not seeing it. Supposedly there are 2 dogs from "field lines" that do have PU but names are not being discussed. I'm pretty sure I know who one of them is and have been told that he had/has Uveitis, not pigmentary, which is a totally different eye disease. From what I understand, his is suspected to be a result of a tick borne disease. And the other from field lines, well I'll believe it when I see it and who knows what the pedigree looks like and what is being called field lines.

If it is an Optigen clinic NORCAL is considering, blood could be drawn for the prcd-PRA test and/or the new DNA test for GR_PRA1, the cause of the majority of PRA in the Golden Retriever. This is also much more prevalent in the conformation lines.

Sorry to hijack folks, but I guess it's not an official hijack since we stayed on topic.

Debbie, contact me if you need more info and/or help.

[WRL]

Question about who's more affected by PRA - mostly field labs, or is it showing up in the conformation lines as well? This is the case in goldens, mostly in field lines.

The reason I ask, is that NORCAL GRC is considering offering a 'clinic' to test for PRA and Pigmentary Uveitis to save costs for the owners by taking advantage of group submissions.

.....

Debbie Tandoc
NORCAL GRC Field VP

Mostly (in Labs) it is predominantly in conformation lines and pointing lines out of the midwest. So far, the carriers with "field" lines are all pointing lines and are not from "A list" field trial breedings (FC AFC type breedings).

However, with everyone contributing with their results (more and more field folks are doing the PRA test) I believe a trend will become very clear.

I know of only ONE affected dog that is by an "A List" field trial dog and to my knowledge, her paternity has not been DNA verified. I do not know if her sire was tested and came back a carrier (he passed away some years back).

WRL

[Melanie Foster]

The form that is showing up in the field lines is prcd-PRA

Oops, to clarify, obviously I was referring to Goldens. I was just trying to clear up the semantics between PRA used in a general sense vs the specific types.

WRL answered your question more directly.

[Aussie]

Adderslot Star Spangled Yank (Ebonstar Lean Mac x Watermarks KD) DOB 21st June 2005

PRA Normal

RD/OSD Normal

Eyes cleared annually

[mwk56]

Critter Creek Muddy Waters, MH
PRA clear
RD clear

scans of his clearances on his web page
http://www.crittercreeklabradors.com...otos_muddy.tml

[Pattie]

RIVERBENZ PASTA PRIMAVERA JH, WC

Out of Riverbenz Rebel’s Rollingrock MH - HRCH Yahweh Blessed Isabella MH
PRA: Normal

All clearances posted on OFA.

[Richard McCullough]

Here is the one for Max; Clear
http://www.offa.org/display.html?appnum=1329498#animal

[Rainmaker]

Rainmaker's Hot Cajun Gumbo, JH, PRA clear. http://www.gooddoginfo.com/gdc/asp/v...sp?DogNo=88146

Rainmakers Chilian Red, JH, PRA clear. http://www.gooddoginfo.com/gdc/Asp/v...sp?DogNo=86537

TNT Cherry Bomb Delight, JH, PRA clear. http://www.gooddoginfo.com/gdc/Asp/v...sp?DogNo=98072

[Gerry Clinchy]

Debbie wrote:

The reason I ask, is that NORCAL GRC is considering offering a 'clinic' to test for PRA and Pigmentary Uveitis to save costs for the owners by taking advantage of group submissions.

Deb, as a Golden club, you can consider doing a "mass collection" for the OFA DNA repository. For Goldens, GRF will provide collection supplies (tubes, syringes, etc) & GRF pays the $20 fee to OFA for all Golden participants. Club provides vet tech & shipping. Our GRC offered this service free to participants ... the club absorbed costs of vet tech & shipping.

Labs could donate to OFA, too, but they will have to pay their own costs.

The value of the OFA repository: Owners can withdraw a DNA sample in the future if a new DNA test becomes available. Meanwhile the DNA is also available to researchers. With Goldens, the GRCA determines which research studies will be able to withdraw DNA samples. Blood is better for this than swabs since more DNA material is yielded from blood samples.

There is no "storage fee", just the initial $20 fee for putting the sample into the repository. OFA then issues you a certificate with the dog's DNA ID #.

It would be wonderful if LRC could start some sort of program like the one GRF provides. Meanwhile, interested Lab owners could take advantage of such clinics when they are offered by Golden clubs (even though they will have to pay their own fees). Lab or field trial clubs could offer this at their annual health clinics or club events. Our rather small Golden club (37 members) collected 83 samples in January at our annual eye/heart clinic. I think that there are probably at least 30 Golden clubs in the country (haven't counted!) which could mean about 2500 samples a year going into the DNA repository.

If we register 30,000 Goldens in a year, 2500 samples is close to 10% ... but WRT the responsible breeders' population, the %-age would actually be higher since many of the AKC registrations are not from those breeders.

I believe that Goldens now have the largest DNA repository, and were the first breed to have DNA withdrawn for research.

Since Labs are an even larger breed in #s, this could be good preparation for any genetic disease that should become evident in the future, and for research that can lead to DNA tests for some diseases that we already know about ... for example, the RD forms in Labs that do not yet have DNA tests available.

[WRL]

Wind River's Almond Rocha ( CFC HRCH Gunner, Flight Interceptor SH x Stoneridge's Ms Abrakadabra MH)

PRA Clear