The Joint Breed Liaison Committee

JBLC Health Advice for breeders on auto-immune disease

and what the JBLC is doing about the disease

The JBLC recognise members concerns regarding the incidence of auto-immune disease in Beardies and the apparent rise in reported cases in our recent health study.

Auto-immune diseases are complex polygenic diseases i.e. many genes are required to make a dog susceptible, and there is undoubtedly environmental factors that trigger them. This makes it very difficult to predict which dogs will be affected or to produce breeding strategies to avoid them.

The current best advice is not to breed from any dog that has been affected with auto-immune disease at any stage of its life. Any semen stored from dogs that have gone on to develop auto-immune disease should be destroyed.

Matings that have produced offspring with auto-immune disease should not be repeated.

If an individual dog has produced multiple cases of auto-immune disease, especially in different and relatively unrelated mates, serious consideration should be given to withholding it from further breeding.

What are the JBLC doing?


Published: 13 July 2015 (edited: 10 May 2018)