PRAA - Page 1

anyone have any experience with PRAA?

What would you do if one of your brood bitches produced a pup with PRAA in her first litter? I was sent a girl and didn't find out till after the fact that she produced it in 1 puppy out of her first and so far only litter. Would you (asking reputable breeders out there) still breed this female? or how would you handle this? I do not have any experience with the problem and am not sure of the genetics of it.

I've had my fair share of health problems within the breed and do not want to do anything that would promote more. Not sure if this is just something that happens or what

any advise or info would be appreciated.

What is PRAA?  Are you talking about PRA EYE PROBLEM  or what?? 

Explain your abbreviations?

persistent right aortic arch

Based on limited knowledge, there is a high likelihood that this is genetic. Though the articles below consider other breeds, GSDs are also known to also have this problem. I personally would not consider breeding the same dogs together who produced the pup with this problem. 
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Investigation of the potential heritability of persistent right aortic arch in Greyhounds.
Gunby JM, Hardie RJ, Bjorling DE.

Department of Surgical Sciences, School of Veterinary Medicine, University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI 53706, USA.
In 2 successive matings of the same dam and sire in a Greyhound kennel, 1 of 6 puppies and 2 of 6 puppies were born with persistent right aortic arch (PRAA) in the first and second litters, respectively. Many congenital heart defects in dogs are believed to be heritable; however, proof of this has been difficult to obtain. Genetic predisposition to PRAA has been reported in German Shepherd Dogs and Irish Setters. The occurrence of PRAA in related Greyhounds within a kennel suggested a genetic predisposition to PRAA in a breed with which it has not been associated previously. Although the number of matings available for analysis was insufficient to conclusively prove a genetic basis for these observations, the occurrence of PRAA in puppies arising from successive matings of the same dam and sire strongly suggests that some lines of dogs of various breeds may be genetically predisposed to PRAA.

Vet J. 2010 Jan 25. [Epub ahead of print]
Unusual vascular ring anomaly associated with a persistent right aortic arch and an aberrant left subclavian artery in German pinschers.
Menzel J, Distl O.

Institute for Animal Breeding and Genetics, University of Veterinary Medicine Hannover, Bünteweg 17p, 30559 Hannover, Germany.
The objective of this study was to describe a specific form of persistent right aortic arch (PRAA) in three German pinscher dogs and to analyse the mode of inheritance in the breed. This type of PRAA is characterised by a left retro-oesophageal subclavian artery in combination with a ligamentum arteriosum originating at the aberrant left subclavian artery (PRAA-SA-LA). This rare combination of anomalies has only been reported in two isolated cases in other dog breeds and the occurrence of any form of PRAA was not previously known to occur in the German pinscher. In the present study, 18 cases of this congenital anomaly were ascertained and their high degree of relatedness and inbreeding could be shown through pedigree analysis. Three of the affected dogs underwent further clinical investigations, and post-mortem examination (two cases) and findings at surgery (one case) verified the diagnosis of PRAA-SA-LA. A monogenic autosomal recessive mode of inheritance was not likely. Copyright © 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

According to the above article YES it is hereitary.  No you do not want to breed any affected dogs.

So,  of course the same pair shouldn't be bred together,  but would you worry about taking her to another male?  I didn't have her for her first litter.  I was supposed to have gotten her in whelp,  but she reabsorbed/lost her litter (even though an ultrasound was done and did show puppies). 

my concern is keeping and eventually breeding this dog  and having/producing more problems.

Uberland,

If it is not monogenic autosomal recessive, it means that both parents have to carry a defective copies of gene/s responsible. So yes, you could chance breeding her to a different male. Assuming this is not a very common defect, hopefully another male would not contribute. However, to be realistic, one could also breed her to the same male and take the chance that no progeny would be affected. I would not do that, for obvious reasons. Pups could be carrying the defect which simply was not expressed because they dog did not inherit defective gene/s from both parents.

I think one must think about whether there is something so OUTSTANDING in a given dog that it is worth potentially passing on the defect. Of course, humans often don't care about these things and just mate with their partner and to hell with the consequences. There are arguments that can be made to support breeding and not ever breeding again.

ok,  I think I'll return her then.   I don't want to compromise health for other things.  There's too many other nice females out there that haven't produced this to worry with one who has.

I just couldn't tell if I was being too hard or picky about it.  it seems like I am when I have other breeders act like it isn't a big deal.

always seems like when I bring something home outside of the lines I currently have,  there's always a problem :( 

knock on wood, I've been real lucky to not produce anything major like this and I want to keep it that way.

I posted on the GSD message board about my experience with PRAA.

I have a bitch that produced 1 puppy out of a litter of 6 with PRAA. She had previously had 2 litters with no defects. That was her final litter litter 4 years ago.

I kept a bitch from the litter and she whelped 1 litter of 7 with no defects.

I believe that the same stud dog also produce a Megaesophagus with another bitch.