NCBCC January 2020 Newsletter

A researcher at UC Davis has contacted the club asking for participation in a health study of bearded collies. The details are below. Please give this your consideration and contact her if interested.

I am a postdoctoral scholar in Dr. Anita Oberbauer's laboratory at the University of California, Davis. Our lab has dedicated great efforts to improving the health of Bearded Collies. We have targeted our work to understanding the genetic components behind complex canine diseases, such as Addison's disease and symmetrical lupoid onychodystrophy (SLO) in the Bearded Collie, with the end objective of providing genetic tools to breeders to reduce these debilitating diseases.

We have received amazing support from Bearded Collie owners and breeders over the years, and we are reaching out to ask for continued support via sample submission and health updates. We would appreciate it if your breed club could spread the word to its members that we are still in need of blood samples from healthy dogs and dogs affected with either disease for a whole genome sequencing analysis project funded by the AKC Canine Health Foundation (http://www.akcchf.org/research/research-portfolio/2488.html).

We are specifically asking for:

- Healthy Bearded Collies above 10 years of age - with no history of autoimmune conditions diagnosed or suspected

- Bearded Collies with primary Addison's disease - diagnosed by an ACTH stimulation test and presenting abnormal electrolytes at the time of diagnosis.

- Bearded Collies with SLO - diagnosed by a veterinarian

Our laboratory will provide prepaid shipping labels for the samples and the Bearded Collie Foundation for Health is offering to reimburse owners for any costs associated with the blood draw (https://www.beaconforhealth.org/current_SLO_research.html). Information about the study, sample submission and recent publications can be found at https://cgap.ucdavis.edu/.

If owners have submitted a sample to us in the past, we would be grateful for health updates. Owners can update their dog’s health information online at https://cgap.ucdavis.edu/canine-health-status-update/. It is important for our study that we know if a dog developed any diseases or if it remained healthy into old age. Any information we receive will be kept strictly confidential.

Club members interested in participating in the study can contact us directly via email

(lcgershony@ucdavis.edu).

Thank you for your support,

Liza