FB 49. I don’t know whether to say things have been quiet or hectic over the last few weeks. The best news perhaps is that we have now obtained the funding from the Kennel Club for the JKD DNA work. The work was started with funds from the Council for Docked Breeds a few months ago, this authorised by Peter Squires and the Council committee. Now, with the KC funding, the way is open for full scale research. This is also a huge step forward at official recognition level; the application got one hundred percent support from the Kennel Club Charitable Trust Committee.
At the research level Professor Amos has now over 100 microsatellite markers established to cover all the dog chromosomes, and he has added more markers around the ARVC - Striatin region. Swabs are still coming in along with pedigrees from all over the world, and it is a bit of a give-away when Professor Amos goes off on holiday in deepest Greece where he said he would be out of touch, but then emails within two days to say he has made contact with the Boxer world over there and is getting swabs sent from Greek dogs. He is very enthusiastic.
While the microsatellite system for finding genes is not new to me, it appears to be applied a bit differently with dogs than with lab mice and, as is evident, the use in dogs requires large numbers of samples - and deep mathematical analyses, which is not my field at all. But data analysis is Professor Amos’ speciality.
Boxerjkd has been rather left unattended in the last few months because of the campaign with the DNA work, but Lynn Kincla is now putting together a collection of pedigrees from Boxers from various parts of Europe as well as a number from within the UK. The latter, thankfully, are 2 or 3 generations away from show stock, but still present a terrible experience for the dogs and owners. It seems to be getting harder to get adequate diagnoses and pedigrees these days, but nevertheless those we have will soon be published.
I now feel that I have done my bit with Boxer JKD, and it is time for me to hand over fully to Professor Amos. I hope FB 50 will be able to report the detection of the JKD gene or suitable markers for it, and maybe for ARVC too. My thanks to all who have supported this major effort.
At the research level Professor Amos has now over 100 microsatellite markers established to cover all the dog chromosomes, and he has added more markers around the ARVC - Striatin region. Swabs are still coming in along with pedigrees from all over the world, and it is a bit of a give-away when Professor Amos goes off on holiday in deepest Greece where he said he would be out of touch, but then emails within two days to say he has made contact with the Boxer world over there and is getting swabs sent from Greek dogs. He is very enthusiastic.
While the microsatellite system for finding genes is not new to me, it appears to be applied a bit differently with dogs than with lab mice and, as is evident, the use in dogs requires large numbers of samples - and deep mathematical analyses, which is not my field at all. But data analysis is Professor Amos’ speciality.
Boxerjkd has been rather left unattended in the last few months because of the campaign with the DNA work, but Lynn Kincla is now putting together a collection of pedigrees from Boxers from various parts of Europe as well as a number from within the UK. The latter, thankfully, are 2 or 3 generations away from show stock, but still present a terrible experience for the dogs and owners. It seems to be getting harder to get adequate diagnoses and pedigrees these days, but nevertheless those we have will soon be published.
I now feel that I have done my bit with Boxer JKD, and it is time for me to hand over fully to Professor Amos. I hope FB 50 will be able to report the detection of the JKD gene or suitable markers for it, and maybe for ARVC too. My thanks to all who have supported this major effort.
RSS Feed
