Research into Late Onset Ataxia in PRT
Animal Health Trust
The money collected will go towards...
research into Late Onset Ataxia in Parson Russell Terrier
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Late Onset Ataxia is a neurological disorder
of a serious nature which has no cure. This condition involves the spinal
nerves affecting the myelin sheathes
This affects the coordination of movement and an
affected individual will have great difficulty moving and turning. As the
disease progresses the dogs loose control of there rear and are unable to stand
or move at all. In postmortems Pathologists have also found that dog may
also have dilation of
the heart and mega esophagus.
The PRT
breed has had a number of individual dogs subjected to LOA. I
personally have bred a couple of dogs affected with this condition and one of
my stud dog has produced puppies with this condition to other breeders bitches.
The AHT have found
that this is inherited as a autosomal recessive trait, which means a dog must
have two defective copies (one from each parent) to be affected. A dog once
tested will be classified as one of the following three classifications :-
Clear - 2 normal copies of the implicated gene -
the dog does not have ataxia, is not a carrier for ataxia and cannot produce
carrier or affected offspring.
Carrier - 1 normal copy and one defective copy
of the implicated gene - the dog is not affected by ataxia but is a carrier of
the gene. He can pass the gene onto his offspring.
Affected - 2 defective copies of the implicated gene
- the dog has ataxia, and will pass the gene onto offspring.
The Animal Health
Trust are currently researching this disorder & working towards a
DNA Test for LOA they are very close to finding a test for this disease but to
complete their work are in urgent need of additional funds.
