Please read if a Glen of Imaal owner

Below is an email from the Animal Health Trust (Give A Dog a Genome). Glen of Imaal Terriers have supported the project and are now being asked for their input. It is of interest to Glen owners worldwide, but the dog chosen WILL be UK resident, this though does not stop anybody putting forward their thoughts.

The two Health Co-ordinators are Don Harley (donaldharley@virginmedia.com) and Alison Seall (efghealth@gmail.com) and these are the two people that replies should be sent to so please copy both in. They have to return the form to the AHT by May 31st so please make sure any thoughts are with them by May 25th at the latest. Feel free to cross post this to anywhere that Glen owners may read it.

I would like to thank you and your breed community for participating in Give a Dog a Genome (GDG).

We are now ready to start the next stage of the project, which is to select the dog whose genome we will sequence. 

The overall objective of GDG is to build a bank of genomes that will help us distinguish between DNA variants (mutations) that are neutral/benign and those that cause inherited disorders, in all breeds of dog.  To this end, we have two options;

1. we could sequence the genome of a dog that is affected with an inherited disorder that is known to be a concern in your breed, in the hope that we can make some progress understanding the genetic factors that might underlie the disorder?, or
2. we can sequence the genome of an apparently healthy, older dog

The amount of progress we can reasonably expect to make from a single genome depends on the complexity of the disease, the mode of inheritance of the disorder and the nature of the underlying genetic risk factors. 

For autosomal, recessive disorders that are likely to be caused by a single mutation it is possible that we could identify the causal mutation by sequencing the genome of a single dog, in the same way we used whole genome sequencing to identify the mutation responsible for a rare form of cerebellar ataxia in the Hungarian Vizsla:

  http://www.aht.org.uk/cms-display/genetics_gdg_success_stories.html

For more complex disorders, such as idiopathic epilepsy, we are less likely to identify genetic risk factors associated with the disease from a single genome, but the genome will provide data onto which future studies can build.

To enable us to make informed and appropriate choices for each breed we would like to know more about the health disorders that are currently of concern among your breed community and any evidence that may support this.

By gathering this information we will be able to make a decision on a breed by breed basis on whether it will be more valuable to sequence an older, healthy dog or a dog with a health condition you’ve highlighted to us. 

We would be grateful if you can please provide some basic information about the health conditions on the attached form and any evidence that indicates that these are significant health concerns for your breed (if any is available). Please also let us know if you are aware of any other research currently being done into the health condition(s) at any other institutions as our findings might be able to benefit these studies. 

Please complete the consultation with your respective Health Committees or equivalent, and anyone else whose input would be useful, and return it to us by 31^st May 2016. 

If you require a longer time period, this is not a problem, but please let us know. 

We will collate all the information we receive and contact you again from July to discuss our suggestions for the dog we should sequence.  Prior to sequencing, for the majority of breeds, DNA from multiple dogs will be subjected to our standard quality control checks to make sure the sample is high enough quality to be sequenced and we will keep the identity of the dog whose genome we ultimately submit  for sequencing confidential.