Question for you guys

[Side Kick]

Just got back the EIC test for my dog. He is a carrier, my question is how bad of news is this? Will I still be able to breed him? His mom was a carrier but his dad was clear. Any thoughts? Thanks

[stumpjumper]

Its not bad news at all as long as you breed to an all clear female.

[bulldog ducker]

There was a thread on here that you can search that was pretty in depth on the subject a couple of months ago. It depends on who you talk to as to what answer you will get for breeding. If you breed to an clear female you will not get an EIC + pup but you can get carriers. Some say that is enough to not breed. I am no breeder so I have no real opinion. On the upside your dog being a carrier should not affect him. But like I said I am not breeder or vet for that matter.

[Copiah Creek]

If your dog brings something to the breeding table ( GRHRCH/MH/QAA) or FC AFC why would you not breed him as long as you use a clear female ? You will NOT produce any effected pups , and just my opinion ,,,clear to clear or clear to carrier you are still producing quality pups .

[Drakeshead]

Taken from the EIC brochure printed by the University of Minnesota:

The inheritance of EIC
EIC is an autosomal recessive syndrome. To be affected,
a dog must have received the mutated version of the EIC
gene from both parents.

Clear
A dog that has two copies of the normal version of the
EIC gene. Clear dogs will pass on the normal version of
the gene to all of their offspring.

Carrier
A dog that has one copy of the normal EIC gene and one
copy of the mutated EIC gene. Carrier dogs do not show
signs of EIC. On average, carrier dogs will pass on the
mutated copy of the EIC gene to half of their offspring.
By mating a carrier dog to a clear dog, you will, on
average, produce litters that are 50 percent clear and 50
percent carriers, with no affecteds.

Affected
A dog that has two copies of the mutated EIC gene. These
dogs are susceptible to collapse episodes under their
“trigger” conditions. An affected dog will pass on the
mutated EIC gene to all of its offspring. By mating an
affected dog to a clear dog, you will produce a litter that
is made up of 100 percent carrier offspring ? no clears,
but also no affecteds.

One way to present the probability that puppies with EIC will be produced from the mating of parents of each of the three possible genotypes is shown above. Each parent, depending on its genotype, will contribute either the E or the N form of the EIC gene to a puppy. This in turn will result in that particular puppy’s own genotype of N/N, E/N, or E/E. Each of the four squares shown for each of the six possible matings in the Figure represents a 25% chance for producing a pup with that genotype. Thus, the matings resulting in one, two or four red squares will on average produce litters containing 25%, 50% and 100% EIC affected pups, respectively.

For example, breeding an E/N sire to an N/N dam can only produce puppies that are E/N or N/N, and according to our current data that supports a recessive mode of inheritance, none would be susceptible to EIC (2 blue squares and 2 purple squares). On the other hand, breeding an E/N sire to an E/E dam gives a 50% chance that a puppy will have EIC, since puppies can be either E/N or E/E (2 purple squares and 2 red squares). All puppies from the mating of two E/E parents will be E/E and thus likely be susceptible to EIC (four red squares).

Mating an E/E parent to a clear N/N parent would not produce affected puppies (four purple squares), but all would be carriers.

Lastly, and very importantly, we do not recommend selecting dogs for breeding based solely on their both being N/N for the DNM1 gene. Such a drastic strategy, although more quickly eliminating the possibility of producing E/E genotypes and EIC affected dogs, also has the undesired result of losing many of the outstanding exercise and performance traits expected of many lines of Labrador Retrievers. A better approach would enable the continued use of some of the many excellent E/N and E/E dogs by mating them to N/N dogs. This would produce litters without EIC and a choice of dogs to progressively decrease the frequency of the E form of the DNM1 gene by future matings to N/N dogs.

Reference link: http://www.vdl.umn.edu/prod/groups/cvm/ ... 107687.pdf

[Side Kick]

Thanks for the article. He does have some pretty good breeding (MH/AFC) and he is a very smart dog thats why I was wondering.

[Sundown49]

[Relentless]

Just asking: I'm new to this whole thing, but wouldn't this increase the risk of future infected dogs by producing more "carriers"?? which as we all know wouldn't be good because most owners/handlers are not as apt to make the mature, respectful, educated enough to make the decision not breed they're carrier to another carrier?? or visa versa?

or Am I misunderstanding a carrier bred with a clear dog will produce a totally clear dog??

[Lady Duck Hunter]

Some of his offspring ( when bred to an EIC clear female could be clear (odds are 50-50) just like some of the offspring could be carriers. The important thing is that none of them will be affected. If the dog has other great qualities there is no reason remove him from the gene pool.