Concerns re health issues/EPILEPSY/ALSATIAN BREED CAMPAIGN(UK) - Page 1

At the present time ,here in the UK,a number of persons are running a campaign to ,in their own words,create a "new breed"called ALSATIAN.This is those who favour a type of GERMAN SHEPHERD,that is totally different to the rest of the world,akin ,altho.slightly different to those shown at AKC /CKC in the USA/CANADA.My main concern is not type,altho in the words of their spokesperson,the MAIN issue is CONFIRMATION,its HEALTH of the breed as a whole.Please refer to the thread on BENVILLAROSA ALL THAT JAZZ..........i have commented on that thread a while ago re my experience with one litter i bred in 2001 ,in which i retain 3 siblings ,1 male n 2 females who developed 2 inherited conditions in GSDS,male EPI(aged nearly 7)females ,KrissyEPILEPSY(3 YRS)Honey,EPILEPSY(7 yr)My story is on page 2,n my latest comment plus links (page 3)I,m making this perfectly clear i have no vendettas nor grievences to any persons who favour the alsatian type,only the continued strive to contain/curb the incidences of any inherited conditions of our beloved breed by health screening/marker testings for the conditions where a test exists,n researching the pedigrees of our breeding animals.It is well known in the GSD community that many of the pedigrees on the english are backmassed with lines to gsds who are,were epileptics,produced epileptic ,n r implicated by pedigree.Our KC has now banned Mother 2 son.......Father 2 daughter........Brother 2 sister matings,but,as is shown by 2 pedigrees recently supplied on the above mentioned thread here on this board,this type of breeding is still quite close up on some of these pedigrees.Here are 2 links to the alsatian breed campaign for you to have a look at.Carole Spelman,RHEINMEISTER GSDS (UK).............https:/www.facebook.com/AlsatianBreedCampaign...............www.thealsatian.co.uk

https:/www.facebook.com/AlsatianBreedCampaign

I too have been very concerned at what I have read on the facebook page, particularly the statements by Philip Kellingsley (sp?). It would seem from his comments that he is either ill informed about epilepsy, not believing that idioPATHIC epilepsy is hereditary! or has his head stuck firmly in the sand about it.  Most worrying. If that is the attitude to health that they plan to take in developing their 'new breed'  it is surely doomed, as their existing gene pool is already so narrow, and sadly concentrated on many epileptic lines.

This is such a serious health issue I was shocked to see the casual attitude paid to it so blatantly.
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