Need names of breeders that do genetic testing. - Page 2

Thanks so much, everyone. This gives me a place to start. I'm not looking for guarantees, but I do think we can stack the deck against these diseases with testing. I've known breeders that use the same breeding pairs for years with no thought to heritable diseases with TRAGIC results! Thoughtless inbreeding has led to homozygous individuals with DM, for example that shows up earlier and earlier in the dog. We are now fortunate to have genetic tests for DM anyway, however imperfect, and can use it and other tests as tools. Also, once I have the puppy, I could never give it back if it turned out to have something it's parents tested negative for, so that kind of "guarantee" doesn't mean a whole lot to me. I need some time to mourn my baby, so it gives me some time to maybe visit some breeders and learn more.

Yeah, Blackthorn, we have had a few cases of hereditary cataract in GSDs in the UK over the years - the Kennel Club test facility / record is a relatively recent innovation a couple or 3 years old;  one of those 'extras' for which we can no doubt indirectly thank Jemima Harrison and the current health-testing boom generally.  I'll try to find some cases recorded that show which lines they might be in (although my resources are limited at the moment).  Its a miniscule number in comparison to other diseases [DM etc] but since we now have a way of testing for it we may as well use it.  So far not been huge numbers of GSDs submitted;  may only be where the breeder has a historical reason for concern in their line ? Like I said I dont know much about it. 

Malcolm Willis wrote about two forms:
Dominant Primary Cataract, first reported in Germany in 1930; a guy called Hippel started to research and test breed but didnt get far as the stud he was using got accidentally shot!  He concluded this lens opacity was an autosomal Mendalian dominant. But then this condition seems to have disappeared from the breed.
and  Recessive Primary Cataract -  which I guess is what this test is for ?
which appeared in England in 1972 in three litters sired by Zanto zd  Stocken. But then it died
out so his progeny were cleared.  It always shows up quite young in pups but not before 8 weeks old.
In 1986 a Dr Barnett concluded it was due to an autosomal Mendalian recessive.
It actually appeared to clear up afterwards so that this dog and his progeny didnt seem to be BBesponsible for any more cases;  but that was written 1991, and presumably other cases have arisen since.

Kennel Club site lists "DNA test : HC-HSF4" (but speaks of it with reference to other breeds rather than Shepherds when describing it).

Interesting! Thanks for the info.

I guess an early onset version is "better" for breeding purposes than the late onset like the Jack Russells get. You can CERF every year and then at age 10, you find out that your stud dog who was bred numerous times (my JRT's dad was the national conformation champion and his mom was the national go-to-ground champion) has the problem and has passed it on to a number of his pups--but by the time you know of the problem, there could be 4 more generations on the ground--and some of them will get the early onset (like my guy) and some of them will be CERF'd clear and bred and pass it on before anyone knows they have the problem.

When  I realized how impossible (without a DNA test) it would be to breed out a late onset problem that was a simple recessive (or even a simple dominant), I was very, very glad that GSDs didn't have that problem.

Christine

Thanks, Blitzen, offa.org is very informative website!

And don't forget that the CERF certification is only good for one year and must be repeated yearly to be valid. So check the dates if that is important to you. 

West Coast German Shepherds has a great website that is very informative, particularly about how to use genetic test results for DM in breeding. They test their dogs extensively and list all the tests prominently. The website also suggests that those of us looking for dogs specifically ask to see the test results in writing. Apparently there are breeders out there that claim their dogs are free of DM issues just because they are from certain countries, but any dog from any country can have these genes.