Vicky, In addition to the histiocytosis research at Fred Hutchinson and Dana Farber, there are a number of other studies that I can summarize here.
Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center has been working for a number of years to map the canine genome, they have been working in concert with a number of other research facilities around the world. They had been collecting samples of unrelated dogs from as many different breeds as possible, I don't know if they still need samples from Berners or not. I suspect they have enough, but I'll have to check. Berner-Garde is sponsoring a study by Dr. George Padgett to determine if hemangiosarcoma has a hereditary basis in Bernese Mountain Dogs. I believe we will hear that it is. There is a study supported by the BMDCA on lymphoma and osteosarcoma. It's being done by Dr. Jaime Modiano in Denver, Colorado, at the AMC Cancer Research Center. VetGen has been working on hip dysplasia for a number of years, they are always interested in getting samples from dogs that are members of families with more than two affected Berners. Epilepsy is being studied at the U of Missouri-Columbia and the U of Minnesota. They are studying the genetic basis for epilepsy in all breeds, and they are also interested in samples. Dr. Paige Carmichael, DVM, at the University of Georgia School of Veterinary Medicine, is working on developing a carrier test for Hepatocerebellar Degeneration. Sandy Novocin is collecting information about symptoms that we see in Bernese that seem to suffer from something similar to Multiple Schlerosis in humans. She wants to provide information to a neurologist that is interested in learning more about this problem. These are just a very small group of all the studies that are being done, you can always take a look at www.bmdca.org under Health for contact information and details on how to participate. For information about what other studies are being done, take a look at http://www.akcchf.org/ under Research. It's a long list! And those are only the ones being sponsored by the Canine Health Foundation. I know I didn't answer your question quite the way you had hoped, but I did want to be thorough! Pat Long (& Luther) Berwyn PA ________________________________________________________________________________ Check any e-mail over the Web for free at MailBreeze (http://www.mailbreeze.com)
