Epilepsy Research Study at The Canine Genetics Centre at the University of Cambridge
In September last year the Kennel Club Genetics Centre held a research day hosted by the University of Cambridge. For the three breed club health representatives who attended the highlight of the day was the initial announcement of a new epilepsy study involving five breeds which includes the Irish Setter.
The breed clubs are actively supporting this new study and are eagerly waiting for information as it is released. For those of you who supported our initiative and supplied swabs to the University of Helsinki you’ll be delighted to know that they are one of the research groups involved.
Below is the latest update from the Canine Genetics Centre.
Epilepsy programme update
Posted on February 15, 2024 | by canine-genetics
Alongside our current genetic investigations of idiopathic epilepsy in the Border Collie and Italian Spinone, we are embarking on an exciting new study starting this year to investigate the genetics of epilepsy in five new breeds – the Beagle, English Springer Spaniel, Giant Schnauzer, Hungarian Vizsla and Irish Setter.
This two-year study is a collaboration with Linnaeus, the University of Helsinki and other veterinarians/research groups within our field, where we will utilise a newly developed approach, based on whole genome sequencing (WGS), to study the disease.
We are also keen to utilise the genomes of idiopathic epilepsy cases generated as part of the Give a Dog a Genome project, and so an arm of the study will extend to all of the breeds that participated in this project.
We are currently refreshing our website, so do look out for updates, and we hope to run a webinar later in the year to explain our study in more detail. More information coming soon as the study progresses!
