American update and more

FB 16. I have just seen the August 2014 issue of the American Boxer Club Charitable Foundation. In it Kerstin-Lindblad-Toh of the Broad Institute reports on her study upon JKD/JRD in American Boxers indicating that she has identified a good candidate gene. I think we heard a little about this last summer following reports from the big veterinary meeting in Europe. In any event, I gather the plan is now to increase the number of dogs by including Swedish Boxers, and I have certainly seen posts asking Swedish and other European breeders for help. I had independently offered Kerstin Lindblad-Toh our UK samples but, for personal reasons she did not reply for a while, and by then I had agreed to contribute to a parallel Norwegian programme that has also found a candidate gene. We live in hopes, but we had a candidate gene in our first UK studies on JKD too and this did not work out. Finding some genes is not easy. Look at ARVC - this did not work out either, when applied in practice. I may hear something about the Norwegian JKD work later this month. Frankly, with JKD, it is the controls that worry me, but the researchers seem to think they can cope statistically with anything. At another level I am worried about the lack of any practical help for breeders, particularly here in the UK where JKD is on everyone’s mind. I have tried pushing a member of the health committee for action, but clearly nothing is going to happen. In disgust I have probed for information myself and, as indicated a month or so ago, I did find some signs that we may yet be able to do something useful - with a little dedication. Firstly, if indeed breeders are indeed following the initial guideline, to avoid inbreeding as far as possible, which appears to be the case, this alone should reduce the incidence of the disease. Secondly, if JKD-producers are voluntarily being withdrawn from breeding, as inspection of KC registrations suggests, this should not only reduce the incidence of JKD but equally importantly, it should reduce the incidence of the gene responsible. Without anything else, the incidence of JKD should decline, and we can actually help this shift. It would best if breeders ​