Science!

A mountain rescue dog whose duties ended after her eyesight failed has helped scientists create a test that could eradicate the genetic eye condition in her breed for good.

Shola the English shepherd has an inherited eye disease called progressive retinal atrophy (PRA) that causes the light-sensitive cells at the back of the eye to deteriorate, eventually leading to blindness.

PRA affects more than 100 dog breeds, can be caused by a number of different genetic variants and has no treatment. For some types, symptoms do not appear until the dog is several years old, by which point they may have passed their genes on to puppies.


Katherine Stanbury, the first author of the research from the University of Cambridge, said Shola was four years old when she began struggling with her vision in dim light.

“She was sent to a veterinary ophthalmologist and they confirmed that she had PRA,” said Stanbury. “And then it turned out her brother also had PRA.”

Stanbury and colleagues have not only identified the genetic variant responsible for the condition in English shepherds but developed a £48 DNA test to reveal whether dogs have none, one or two copies of the variant.

While Stanbury said variants that cause PRA were typically breed-specific, the team will now screen any dog affected by an inherited eye disease for the new variant.

“If it does pop up in another breed, we can monitor that,” she said.…….


https://www.theguardian.com/science...ted-blindness-dogs-pra?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other