Factors influencing litter size and puppy losses in the Entlebucher Mountain dog

Schrack, Johanna; Dolf, G.; Reichler, Iris M; Schelling, C.

doi:10.1016/j.theriogenology.2017.03.004

Cited by 17 publications

(32 citation statements)

References 26 publications

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“…The final data set comprised 7827 puppies in 1013 litters by 386 dams and 193 sires, born from September 2001 to February 2018 (Additional file 4). Potential predictors were chosen based on literature [4, 11, 26, 29, 36, 37]. Breed, a well-known factor influencing PBW [6] was not relevant for the present study because all animals were LR.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Heritabilities for the puppy weight at birth in Labrador retrievers

et al. 2019

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BackgroundWeight at birth is an important predictor of neonatal mortality and morbidity in dogs. In addition, the birthweight of the puppies in a litter influences the decision to perform a cesarean section. The goal of the present study was to estimate heritabilities for the puppy birth weight in Labrador retrievers.ResultsOf the 1138 Labrador retriever litters whelped at the Guiding Eye for the Blind between September 2001 and February 2018, 1013 were included in the analyses after data editing. Puppy weight at birth was the target trait, measured on a continuous scale in pounds, and converted to grams. Linear mixed models were used to identify factors influencing puppy weight at birth. The analyses showed that the sex of the puppy, litter size, length of gestation, adult weight of the dam, parity, year of birth and inbreeding coefficient of the puppies and dams contributed to the variance of the puppy birth weight. Dam and litter effects were included as random effects. A multiple trait derivative free restricted maximum likelihood approach was used to estimate variance components and genetic parameters with two animal models, one without covariates (Model 1) and one with covariates (Model 2). Sex of the puppy and litter size had moderate effects, whereas gestation length, adult weight of the dam, parity, year of birth and inbreeding coefficients of the dam and the puppies had minor effects. Estimates for Model 1 and Model 2 were 0.21 and 0.17 for the direct heritabilities, 0.22 and 0.22 for the maternal additive genetic heritabilities, 0.07 and 0.07 for the maternal permanent environmental proportions, and 0.14 and 0.08 for the environmental proportion of the litter.ConclusionsIn order to estimate reliable breeding values for puppy weight at birth, sex of puppy, litter size, length of gestation and the adult weight of the dam should be included. Estimates could benefit from weighing the dams prior to each mating.

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Heritabilities for the puppy weight at birth in Labrador retrievers

et al. 2019

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“…The IWDR calculates inbreeding coefficients for dogs and their potential offspring, providing a tool for minimizing the accumulation of inbreeding in the working dog population. Including inbreeding information in mating decisions will preserve genetic variability in the population and avoid deleterious health and reproductive effects associated with increases in inbreeding ( 27 – 30 ).…”

Section: Guidelines For the Detection Dog Center Of Excellencementioning

confidence: 99%

A Solution for the Shortage of Detection Dogs: A Detector Dog Center of Excellence and a Cooperative Breeding Program

Leighton¹,

Hare

Thomas³

et al. 2018

Front. Vet. Sci.

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Currently, demand for US-bred and born detector dogs exceeds available supply, while reliance on foreign-bred sources introduces many unnecessary and unwanted risks. With proper management of a domestic supply line, U.S. breeders can improve both health and behavior by applying scientific principles to breeding and raising of detector dogs. A cooperative national detector dog breeding and development program will mitigate the current shortage of domestic-bred dogs that meet the health and behavior standards required by government, military, and law enforcement agencies. To coordinate such a cooperative, we propose a Detector Dog Center of Excellence (DDCoE) led by representatives of academic canine science programs guided by an advisory board of stakeholders. As a non-governmental organization, the DDCoE will oversee selective breeding of dogs owned by breeders, purchase the resulting puppies, and its members will supervise puppy raising until dogs are of a suitable age to be purchased by government agencies or other working dog organizations. The DDCoE will serve as an approved vendor to facilitate the procurement process. Breeding decisions will be based on proven quantitative genetic methods implemented by a specialized database. A national working dog semen bank will ensure conservation of diverse genetic material and enhance selection response by providing numerous potential sires. As a data collection and genetic evaluation center, the DDCoE will lead research to define quantitative traits involved in odor detection, to understand how these traits develop, and methods to optimize training of dogs endowed with enhanced odor detection ability.

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“…The breed predisposition indicates a genetic background; however, exaggerated breeding restrictions to reduce the risk of clinically affected dogs in the offspring are of concern, as the EMD already has a high average inbreeding coefficient of around 40% (Schrack et al . ). Therefore, selection based on genotypes would be desirable, but first attempts to associate five suitable candidate genes, selected from mouse studies (Uetani & Bouchard ), with EU in EMD were unsuccessful (North et al .…”

Section: Summary Statistics For Significant Markers Associated With Ementioning

confidence: 97%

“…This assumption is supported by the high average inbreeding coefficient of extant EMDs (Schrack et al . ) as well as by the much lower prevalence of EUs in the related Appenzeller mountain dog breed (Bitterli ). However, the high heritability seems to contradict this hypothesis.…”

Section: Summary Statistics For Significant Markers Associated With Ementioning

confidence: 99%

Genome‐wide association study and heritability estimate for ectopic ureters in Entlebucher mountain dogs

et al. 2018

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Summary An ectopic ureter is a congenital anomaly which may lead to urinary incontinence and without a surgical intervention even to end‐stage kidney disease. A genetic component contributes to the development of this anomaly in Entlebucher mountain dogs (EMD); however, its nature remains unclear. Using the Illumina CanineHD bead chip, a case–control genome‐wide association study was performed to identify SNPs associated with the trait. Six loci on canine chromosomes 3, 17, 27 and 30 were identified with 16 significantly associated SNPs. There was no single outstanding SNP associated with the phenotype, and the association signals were not close to known genes involved in human congenital anomalies of the kidney or lower urinary tract. Additional research will be necessary to elucidate the potential role of the associated genes in the development of ectopic ureters in the EMD breed.

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Factors influencing litter size and puppy losses in the Entlebucher Mountain dog

Cited by 17 publications

References 26 publications

Heritabilities for the puppy weight at birth in Labrador retrievers

Heritabilities for the puppy weight at birth in Labrador retrievers

A Solution for the Shortage of Detection Dogs: A Detector Dog Center of Excellence and a Cooperative Breeding Program

Genome‐wide association study and heritability estimate for ectopic ureters in Entlebucher mountain dogs

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