Anne, (Robins, is it?), I say let's all go to Sweden. None of this is clear to me as yet..I'm waiting and watching. I still see dogs that are clear to 7 or 8 and dead shortly after the murmur develops. There is far too much criticism and not enough positive thinking. I have no idea what you mean by your last sentence. Explain please. JoAnn
> Annette Jones wrote: > > > > There are NO lines clear of MVD and no genetic test to enable us to screen > > our stock - there fore there is no way of knowing which puppy (if any) in a > > litter will develop early or late onset unfortunately and who will never > > develop it but live and die of some other ailment like cancer or kidney > > failure. You can health test until the cows come home and use dogs with a > > good history behind them but it will not prevent somewhere along the line a > > puppy in later life developing MVD. > > > > There is certainly no way to know which puppy in a litter will develop early > MVD. But there IS a way (as has been researched and documented by the > cardiologists and geneticist in Sweden) of reducing the frequency of MVD in > Cavaliers and increasing the odds of producing a lower percentage of dogs with > MVD -- and that is by breeding to and from older dogs with cardiologist's > clear heart certificates. The research shows that it is possible to also > reduce the frequency of MVD by breeding to younger dogs whose parents are clear > of MVD at an older age. Of course, this is not 100% foolproof but it doesn't > take a rocket scientist to understand that if you breed generations of older, > heart clear dogs then you will get a higher percentage of heart clear > offspring. This is surely what we all strive for. So .... whilst it is true > that no amount of testing is a guarantee that your dogs will be clear of MVD, > it is certainly a step towards reducing the possibility of your offspring > coming up with early onset MVD. > > If we can reduce the gene pool so much by selecting for conformation and > beauty, then surely we can reduce the gene pool for clear hearts. > > Anne > > > > ========================================================= "Magic Commands": to stop receiving mail for awhile, click here and send the email: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?body=SET%20CKCS-L%20NOMAIL to start it up gain click here: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?body=SET%20CKCS-L%20MAIL E-mail [EMAIL PROTECTED] for assistance. Search the Archives... http://apple.ease.lsoft.com/archives/ckcs-l.html All e-mail sent through CKCS-L is Copyright 1999 by its original author.
