FB 34. I must confess to being an impatient individual. If things need to be done, I want to do them now. If questions need answering, I want to go after the answers immediately. My perplexity over the decline in UK JKD numbers has therefore irked me enough to seek answers. So, were recent cases being reported to the AHT instead of boxerjkd.com nowadays? I phoned up Bryan Mclaughlin at the AHT to enquire. We had a very friendly and open conversation on many aspects of JKD but, on numbers, the short answer is that they have not had a case since June. So are numbers really declining, or are new cases not being reported at all? While I could understand bigger breeders not wanting to report affected animals as this could damage their kennels’ reputations, few cases are owned by these breeders; most are in pet homes. I am therefore forced to believe that the decline in numbers is real, and this fits with the change in breeding reflected in show catalogues. Would that dealing with JKD could be so easy! I doubt it, but we’ll see.
On a related topic I was dismayed to hear from Bryan Mclaughlin that the quality of the material they have available is not high, some of it comprising older samples they had collected themselves, and the control issue was also a problem being based on blood and urine tests that we know are of little use for determining the presence/absence of the gene. These problems worried me enough that I subsequently wrote offering the AHT the surplus material that I hold, in place of sending it to Canada as I had planned. If the AHT have a new scheme for finding the gene I would certainly prefer them to have my blood samples. Bryan Mclaughlin wrote back immediately expressing interest but, disappointingly, I have heard nothing further.
My article on JKD, entitled ‘The Confusing Picture of Boxer JKD’, seems to be attracting attention and doing some good. Therefore I am trying to get it published more widely. Putting it on facebook might not help this plan, but if you want to find it, it is immediately available on the www.boxerjkd.com website.
On a related topic I was dismayed to hear from Bryan Mclaughlin that the quality of the material they have available is not high, some of it comprising older samples they had collected themselves, and the control issue was also a problem being based on blood and urine tests that we know are of little use for determining the presence/absence of the gene. These problems worried me enough that I subsequently wrote offering the AHT the surplus material that I hold, in place of sending it to Canada as I had planned. If the AHT have a new scheme for finding the gene I would certainly prefer them to have my blood samples. Bryan Mclaughlin wrote back immediately expressing interest but, disappointingly, I have heard nothing further.
My article on JKD, entitled ‘The Confusing Picture of Boxer JKD’, seems to be attracting attention and doing some good. Therefore I am trying to get it published more widely. Putting it on facebook might not help this plan, but if you want to find it, it is immediately available on the www.boxerjkd.com website.
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