OFA/GDC Merge: Questions and Answers

The Genetic Pedigree: a powerful tool against canine genetic disease By George G. Packard georgepackard@conknet.com (Copyright 2001 George Packard) (Permission for non-commercial electronic distribution granted. Contact author for permission to reprint.) As a breeder of purebred dogs, you don't need a PhD in Genetics to understand that your job comes down to a balancing act between selecting for the traits you want, and selecting against the traits you don't want. Easy to say, but not so easy to do. In fact, one of the measures of the real difficulty of dog breeding is the current alarm among breeders and buyers about the increasing amount of genetic disease in just about all breeds. And the concern that nobody seems to be able to do much, if anything, about it. Common wisdom about getting rid of a genetic disease like hip dysplasia in your line is to try to breed away from it by finding dogs which seem to be unaffected by, or clear of, the disease. It's an approach that works fairly well, unless one or both of the dogs happens to be carrying defective genes. And, unfortunately, canine geneticists tell us that all purebred dogs carry several defective genes. So trying to reduce genetic disease in your line by selecting apparently normal dogs will, at best, move you towards the breed average for the disease you are worried about. At worst it will bring even more defective genes into your line. Imagine trying to fix your car's engine by randomly swapping parts from your neighbor's car. Select against defective genes The only really effective way to attack the problem of genetic disease is to actively select against the defective genes, rather than trying to select for the most normal dogs you can find. It's a way of thinking about breeding that seems counter-intuitive, until you realize that if you know who the affected and carrier dogs are among the close relatives of the dogs you want to breed, you can lower your risks dramatically by making smart choices. That's why breeders (and puppy buyers) show more and more interest in having dogs screened for genetic disease (using conventional diagnostics as well as the new genetic testing) and in sharing that health information openly. Why share the information? Because you can't select against the defective genes unless you know which dogs are carrying them. But whether that health information is in an open registry, or penciled into notebook as a result of hours and hours of research and detective work on your part, you still need a way to visualize the relationships between the members of a dog's family in order to figure out where the least amount of risk is. The genetic pedigree as a tool That's the beauty of what is known as a genetic, or geneticist's, pedigree. This is not the traditional lineage pedigree that lists parents, grandparents, etc. It's a chart of close relatives that shows in as much detail as possible which dogs do, and don't, carry defective genes. This tool is invaluable if you are trying to select against a polygenic disease like hip dyplasia. Even though you can't tell how many of the genes that create hip dysplasia a dog may be carrying, you can, with enough information about affecteds, make a relatively strong assessment of risk. For a single gene disease like PRA, you can do an even better job of predicting risk. Remember that you are selecting against defective genes, and not defective dogs. You need to be able to preserve as many of the good traits of a particular dog as you can. So you can use the genetic pedigree to analyze the risk of whether or not a particular mating will increase or decrease the probability of producing carriers and affecteds in the puppies. You may be able to preserve the traits you need from a sire, but select against genetic disease in his line by mating him with a dam with a very low risk for passing along the defective genes. (But you must evaluate the puppies!) "So, now I can look at the geneticist's pedigree and see at a glance what genetic defects my dog, Kyra, has in her lines," says White Shepherd breeder Judy Huston, the health and genetics chairperson for her breed club. But that's only a part of the job, Judy explains. "What's next? Now I need to make a list of the potential studs and find out what their defects are. Oh no, not again! I thought I was finished. But the good news is that these dogs are related and most of their information I already have--but not all of it. So, more email goes out, more requests for information and more willingness on the part of the breeders to help me out." The genetic pedigree can be as simple as a chart of a dog's parents and littermates. Or as complicated as a 10-year overview of the entire family of a dog, listing a hundred relatives and all the litters produced by all matings, and showing carriers, multiple traits, deaths, birth dates and more. Accompanying this article is an example of a very simple genetic pedigree, based on information from a GDC KinReport™ (GDC maintains a national and international open registry and provides health information on a dog and its close relatives). For information on how to draw and use a genetic pedigree, see Dr. George Padgett's recent book, Control of Canine Genetic Diseases (Howell Book House, 1998). (Text continues below picture) Collecting the information to draw a genetic pedigree based on the GDC open registry requires several steps. The first would be to search the GDC database for the dog you are interested in to find out how many close relatives are also registered. If you find a dozen or more, you would then order the GDC KinReportsª that cover those dogs. You can then draw the pedigree and include the evaluations for each dog. You could then fill in missing information on a litter, perhaps, by contacting the breeder or other sources. As an example of a basic way to use a genetic pedigree, let's say that this one shows information on a simple recessive trait such as PRA (progressive retinal atrophy). Each darkened square or circle is a dog affected with PRA, but we need to figure out which dogs may be carriers. If one of the puppies is affected, it means that both parents carry the gene. Remember that unless you have a DNA test for PRA for your breed, you can't tell if a parent is a carrier until he produces a puppy that is affected. Because a puppy in Litter C is affected, we know that both Ann and Art are carriers. And because two puppies in Litter H are affected, we also know that Bob is a carrier. Using the same logic, you can use the genetic pedigree to learn a lot about these dogs. Note that there is only full information on one litter in this pedigree. And that litters K and L are very important, but there is no useful information currently in the registry. Registries are only as good as the amount of information in them, and that is why GDC emphasizes registering entire litters. George Packard manages Information Services for GDC. [http://www.vetmed.ucdavis.edu/gdc/gdc.htm] To subscribe to the GDC email Newsnote, send your request to georgepackard@conknet.com END

 

How to Select Against Genetic Disease with Knowledge, not Hope By George Packard georgepackard@conknet.com (Copyright 2001 George Packard) (Permission for non-commercial electronic distribution granted. Contact author for permission to reprint.) High anxiety about genetic diseases comes with the territory for anybody who is considered to be a responsible breeder these days. In fact, if you are breeding dogs, and you aren't worried about genetic disease, you'd better hold off on that next mating until you've done your homework. Canine geneticists estimate that the average purebred dog is carrying at least 4-5 defective genes. To put it another way, when you are looking at that gorgeous champion with normal hips you are also looking at a dog who is carrying the genes that can cause several types of genetic disease. And unless his owner has a detailed genetic pedigree on this dog and is willing to share it with you, you have no way of knowing what those disease genes are. That champion may be carrying a recessive gene for PRA, and if he's bred with a bitch who is also carrying the PRA gene, the disease will show up in the puppies. And even though he has normal hips, he may be carrying some of the recessive genes involved in hip dysplasia. If you mate him with a bitch who is normal but also carrying recessive genes for dysplasia, you'll suddenly find yourself, heartbroken and bewildered, with dysplastic puppies. "I'm not worried," you may say, " because soon we'll have DNA tests that will solve these problems." That's all well and good if researchers have developed a test for the single gene disease your line is troubled by. But if that test doesn't exist, are you willing to wait five or ten years for your turn to come? And that's assuming you'll persevere as a breeder beyond the six-year average when most people give up, often because they can't seem to stop producing puppies with genetic diseases. Of course, we are only talking about tests for single gene diseases. Most of the severe diseases like hip and elbow dysplasia, cancer and epilepsy, are polygenic, caused by the complex interplay of many genes, and no researchers have come close to developing a polygenic gene test. Are you willing to wait 20 years for a gene test for hip dysplasia? Are you willing to watch another 30 years go by with no significant decrease in hip dysplasia among purebred dogs? Breeders in Sweden in 1976 weren't willing to wait, and so they set up an open registry and started screening all their dogs. By 1989 they had achieved a 50 percent decrease in moderate to severe hip dysplasia in almost all breeds ("Breeding Healthier Dogs in Sweden": Ake Hedhammar, Tijdschrift voor Diergeneeskunde, April 1991). What is the secret of this astonishing success? Nothing more profound than the fact that each breeder made it his or her business to find out where the carriers and affecteds were in a dog's close family Ñ siblings, half-sibs, offspring, parents and parents' siblings. Using relatively simple methods, they could then predict the risk of inheritance of defective genes in any mating. A few breed clubs in the US have shown similar successes with targeted genetic diseases. But the majority of our purebred dog breeders, and the major institutions that support them such as AKC and OFA, have shown little or no interest in using open registries combined with proven breeding methods to reduce genetic diseases. Times are changing, however. In 1990 GDC (Institute for Genetic Disease Control in Animals, (www.vetmed.ucdavis.edu/gdc/gdc.htm) established an international all-breed open registry based on the success of the Swedish model. In the following decade thousands of breeders began to register their dogs and to make breeding decisions in accord with the knowledge of where the carriers and affecteds were in a particular dog's family . Recently, GDC started an advocacy campaign to call for the widespread use of open registries and appropriate breeding methods. The strong response they are getting from breeders throughout the purebred community confirms that the demand for open registries is increasing rapidly. But the reality is that no open registry, whether it is the international GDC registry, or an open registry set up by a breed club, can be useful until it contains significant number of dogs registered in close family groups. Detractors of the open registry concept point to this weakness but ignore the fact that even without enough information in an open registry, breeders can still make progress against genetic disease by doing the legwork themselves. What can you do? -- Register your dogs in an open registry and urge every breeder you know to register also. -- Do whatever you have to do to find out where affecteds and carriers are among a dog's siblings, offspring and other close relatives. -- Don't breed to a dog whose owner will not supply that information. -- Screen as many of your own dogs as possible, and supply that information to buyers and breeders. -- Contact your breed's health committee, the AKC and OFA and strongly urge them to actively promote the use of open registries. Urge your health committee to put GDC on the list of approved registries. For specific information on breeding methods and genetic disease, start with these books: Control of Canine Genetic Diseases; George A. Padgett, DVM, Howell Book House, New York, 1998 Genetics of the Dog; Malcolm B. Willis, Howell Book House, New York, 1989 Several very good articles on basic genetics for dog breeding: http://www.magmacom.com/~kaitlin/diversity/genetics.html Subscribe to the GDC email Newsnote. Send your request to georgepackard@conknet.com END

 

The Breeder's Toolkit: A GDC interview with geneticist, breeder and author Malcolm B. Willis, BSc, PhD Many breeders are familiar with geneticist Dr. Malcolm Willis' articles in the AKC Gazette and his books, including "Genetics of the Dog". In this interview Willis talks with GDC's George Packard about the British scheme for reducing hip dysplasia and about the essentials that every breeder needs to know. Following is an excerpt from the interview: "Finally, all breeders will produce defects if they breed long enough. Those who tell you that they do not produce defects have either stopped breeding, breed hardly at all or are being economical with the truth. There is no crime in producing a defect. The crime, if any, lies in what you do about a defect. If you bury yours quickly and keep quiet about it, and I do the same with mine, then sooner or later we may use each other's dogs and pay the penalty for not having been honest with one another and with the breed we probably profess to love." To download an Adobe Acrobat PDF of the interview, click here: Willis Interview To receive an email version, email your request to: georgepackard@conknet.com GDC sees strong support for advocacy campaign In the past month GDC has received hundreds of emails in support of the GDC advocacy campaign for open registries, including many from people who were not aware of GDC and our existing open registry. The following two quotes from breeders are typical of what we are hearing from people: "...I am interested in helping to promote the Open Genetic Registry. I have been "in dogs" since the late 60's and have always felt that the only way to help stop the suffering because of the many genetic problems found in dogs is for breeders to share all knowledge. Please sign me up for your email discussion group and feel free to contact me for any assistance that I might be in promoting this cause." "...after I read the latest GDC news note, I sent several emails to various AKC departments stating my point of view that I would like to see AKC give substantial support (financially and in public education) to "open registries." I know many breeders feel the same way I do but the wheels so slowly turn!" Our goal is to build a list of 5000 breeders and owners who want to ensure that open registry services remain available in the U.S. and who are actively working to promote the use of open registries to help breeders reduce the prevalence of genetic disease in their lines. This group is already heading towards 1000 members, and with numbers like that, we will definitely have the clout and the numbers to get the word out. For information on what you can do to help, contact georgepackard@conknet.com

GDC sees challenges ahead, announces new focus on advocacy    After a decade of running the only national/international all-breed genetic disease open registry, GDC has become the registry of choice for thousands of breeders throughout the purebred dog world. Unfortunately, we are finding that volumes of registrations continue to be lower than expected, in part because of resistance by a majority of breeders to sharing information on affected or carrier dogs. Low numbers of registrations decrease the usefulness of the registry to breeders, and put heavy financial pressure on GDC. In the light of this challenge, GDC is shifting focus this coming year to exploring new and more effective ways to make an impact on the widespread prevalence of canine genetic diseases. We need to reach a significantly larger audience of breeders with information about using the open registry and the need to know where the affecteds and carriers are in a dog's family before making breeding decisions. Links for more information: April 30, 2001 Letter to GDC Customers Frequently Asked Questions: Challenges for GDC Article: "GDC Calls for Widespread Use of Open Registries"

April 30, 2001      Back to top Important news for GDC customers, friends and supporters: As you know, GDC and thousands of dog owners and breeders, veterinarians, and researchers have been working for more than 10 years to build the GDC open registry into a valuable tool in the fight to control genetic disease. We have made real progress, but despite repeated calls from the world’s top canine geneticists in magazine articles, books, and even at AKC conferences, the majority of breeders and breed groups in the US still actively oppose or do not understand the importance of using an open registry. For an open registry to be useful, large numbers of closely related dogs (siblings, offspring and close family members) must be registered so that breeders can create valid genetic profiles of the dogs they are interested in. Building this type of a registry has been GDC’s principal effort during the past decade, but it is an uphill struggle. Even with very strong support from many breed groups, breeders and owners, GDC has not been able to build the necessary large volume of useful registrations to make the registry both financially stable and effective as a tool for breeders. In the light of this situation, the GDC board of trustees has looked carefully at how the GDC open registry is contributing to the control of genetic disease in purebred dogs. Their conclusion is that without significantly higher volumes of useful registrations as well as better information for breeders about effective breeding practices, the GDC registry will have very little impact on the prevalence of genetic disease. Additionally, without widespread support from the major breed clubs and national organizations such as the AKC, GDC (or any other national multi-breed open registry) will be unable to achieve a “critical mass” of registrations. Yet breeders and owners are desperate for help, now. While DNA testing may be useful for a few single gene diseases like PRA in particular breeds, tests for widespread polygenic diseases like hip dysplasia are many years or even decades away. This past year at GDC we have seen a sharp increase in requests from breeders for help with breeding decisions that are currently beyond GDC’s scope. These are responsible people who are alarmed by the amount of genetic disease they are seeing in their breeds. And they are distressed because they are not getting the straight answers and practical information they need from the AKC and other traditional sources. Therefore, in order to use its resources most effectively in the coming year, GDC has made the decision to shift its emphasis. We will work to produce educational programs for veterinarians and breeders and to create a multi-breed advocacy organization that will push for the use of open sharing of health information as the fundamental means for reducing genetic disease. Our shift in focus is driven by the realization that the best open registry in the world won’t help if breeders won’t use it or don’t understand how to use it in their day-to-day breeding decisions. During the past ten years, GDC has depended on several very generous donors to make up the wide gap between our expenses and income from registrations. During this coming year, however, we must develop new sources of support or seek an institutional affiliation that will ensure the future of the GDC open registry. Without new sources of donor support and significantly increased registrations GDC may be forced to suspend the registry service. GDC will continue to register dogs in existing registries at least during the next 12 months, but will limit the number of new registries it develops. Our major effort now has to be a call to action. If the AKC had established an open registry ten years ago, and used their position as leaders of the purebred dog fancy to push the concept, we would already have seen major reductions in the amount of genetic disease among our dogs. GDC is now looking to join forces with those groups and individuals who think that the time has come to use the tools we have in our hands to fight the genetic diseases that are ruining our dogs. If you have questions about this new initiative at GDC, or would like to know how you can help support a grassroots advocacy effort to promote the concept and use of open registries to improve the quality of life of your dogs, please contact George Packard, GDC Information Services (Ph. 603-456-2286 in NH; email: georgepackard@conknet.com) or visit the GDC website. Sincerely, Paul W. Poulos, Jr. DVM, PhD Executive Director, GDC P.S. As a cost-saving measure, we will restrict the number of mailed copies of the Exchange, the GDC newsletter, and will publish it on our website. We encourage you to print out copies for your friends. If you want to continue to receive a free printed copy of The Exchange in the mail, please make your request by phone, email or letter to GDC.

Back to top Frequently Asked Questions: The Challenges Ahead for GDC May, 2001 For more information: www.vetmed.ucdavis.edu/gdc/gdc.htm GDC@sigmaxi.org   What's going on with GDC? After a decade of running the only national/international all-breed genetic disease open registry, GDC has become the registry of choice for thousands of breeders throughout the purebred dog world. Unfortunately, we are finding that volumes of registrations continue to be lower than expected, in part because of resistance by a majority of breeders to sharing information on affected or carrier dogs. Low numbers of registrations decrease the usefulness of the registry to breeders, and put heavy financial pressure on GDC. In the light of this challenge, GDC is shifting focus this coming year to exploring new and more effective ways to make an impact on the widespread prevalence of canine genetic diseases. We need to reach a significantly larger audience of breeders with information about using the open registry and the need to know where the affecteds and carriers are in a dog's family before making a breeding decision. Is the GDC registry closing?  No, the GDC registry is not closing. GDC will continue to register dogs in existing registries for at least the coming year while we work to secure corporate sponsorship or other funding. However, the number of new registries we add will probably be very limited. If in the future GDC is forced to limit services, all the existing information will continue to be available. Is GDC in financial trouble? Since it was created, GDC has needed to raise funds to cover a significant portion of its operating costs. A small foundation has provided the major portion of those funds, but will no longer be able make large grants to GDC. GDC must find adequate funding through foundation or corporate sponsorships, major donations, an institutional affiliation or other sources during this next year. What is GDC doing about these problems? During the next year GDC will produce practical educational material on how to control genetic diseases by making breeding decisions based on knowing where the affected and carrier dogs are among a dog's close relatives. Most breeders do not understand these methods, and therefore do not understand the crucial importance of an open registry. GDC will also form an all-breed advocacy group of breeders and others to help aggressively promote the need for open sharing of health information. And finally, GDC will do everything possible to find a new source of funding so that it can continue operations. What can I do to help GDC during this next year? One of the most important things you can do is help us build a large advocacy group from all breeds to demonstrate breeder and owner concern about genetic disease and the demand for breeding methods using open registries. Start a core group in your own breed club, and link it to the GDC email group. We are also looking for volunteers to help us on a number of projects. Contact George Packard, GDC Information Services, georgepackard@conknet.com , for more information. Why is the usefulness of the GDC open registry dependent on registrations of closely related dogs? Breeders use the GDC registry to help reduce the prevalence of polygenic or single recessive genetic diseases in their lines. To make smart breeding decisions, they have to know where most of the affected and carrier dogs are among a dog's close relatives (littermates, half-siblings, offspring, parents, and parents' siblings). If many of those close relatives aren't registered with GDC, breeders are missing crucial information and have to try to track it down by word-of-mouth, which is seldom reliable. Why should I register my dog with GDC now? The information on your dog's genetic screenings is extremely valuable data that adds to the overall usefulness of the GDC open registry. With each added dog, the registry becomes more valuable to breeders and to researchers. The individual dog you register may be one of the keys to the puzzle of genetic disease in your breed. I just registered my dog with GDC, but if it s going to close, can I get my money back? When you registered your dog, you agreed to make the information available as a permanent piece of the GDC registry. In doing so, you joined thousands of other dog owners who are thinking not just of their own dogs, but of the future of the breed. GDC does not refund registration fees, except for the registration of an affected dog. Can our breed club transfer our GDC data to another registry? Each individual is welcome to use his or her data in any way desired. Simply make the request to GDC for your data file. If GDC closes next year, what will happen to the data and the x-rays? The data base and all archived information will be maintained in whatever way necessary to allow it to continue to be accessible to breeders, researchers and all others who need to use it. Whom should I contact to get more information, find out what I can do to help, or express a complaint or concern? The GDC website will be expanding with the addition of lots more information. (www.vetmed.ucdavis.edu/gdc/gdc.htm).To talk with GDC directly, contact George Packard, GDC Information Services, georgepackard@conknet.com, Tel/FAX 603-456-2286, or email GDC@sigmaxi.org Back to top

Back to top GDC calls for widespread use of open registries to fight canine genetic disease DAVIS, CA — After more than a decade of operating the only national/international all-breed open registry for canine genetic disease, the Institute for Genetic Disease Control (GDC) will shift its primary focus towards advocacy for the widespread use of open registries throughout the purebred dog world. “Despite repeated calls from the world’s top canine geneticists during the past ten years for the use of complete and unrestricted open registries to fight genetic disease, the AKC and the majority of the purebred fancy have actively resisted adopting this proven tool,” said Dr. Paul W. Poulos, Jr., executive director of GDC. Based on long-established principles of animal breeding, the open registry method was first used in the purebred dog fancy in the 1980s in Sweden with great success. An open registry collects results of all genetic screening tests (both positive and negative) on individual dogs, and makes those results available to the public. In less than ten years Swedish breeders were able to achieve a significant reduction in hip dysplasia using the open registry method. For an open registry to be useful, large numbers of related dogs (siblings, offspring and close family members) must be registered so that breeders can create valid genetic profiles of the dogs they are interested in. According to Dr. Poulos, GDC has not been able to meet its expectations for useful volumes of registered dogs in large part because of the reluctance of the majority of the breeding community to release information about any dogs who are affected with genetic disease. “It is no surprise that here in the US we have made almost no progress in reducing the most serious diseases known or suspected to be genetic such as hip dysplasia and cancer if we refuse to share information about which dogs may be carrying the defective genes,” said Poulos. “Whether it is ignorance or active opposition to the use of open registries, the result is the same: breeders are dismayed with the amount of genetic disease among their puppies and owners are heartbroken with crippled, cancerous and otherwise affected dogs.” In the coming year GDC will focus on producing educational resources for veterinarians and breeders and will take on a strong advocacy role for breeding practices that can reduce the amount of genetic disease in dogs. During this same time GDC expects to limit the number of new disease registries it develops and to search for sources of funding to strengthen its financial position. Because GDC is dependent on income from registrations, the continuing low volumes have put the organization under severe financial pressure. “Our shift in focus is driven by the realization that the best open registry in the world won’t help if breeders won’t use it or don’t understand how to use it in their day-to-day breeding decisions,” explained Poulos. During the past ten years GDC has worked with many breed groups to establish more than two dozen specific genetic disease registries and now has a number of new requests in progress. However, according to Dr. Poulos, getting a significant number of breeders and owners to actually register their dogs is an uphill battle. Without the registration of large numbers of closely related dogs, the data in the open registry cannot be used effectively by breeders to select against affected dogs for breeding purposes. As many geneticists and writers have pointed out, a dog selected for breeding from the OFA registry, for example, might have been cleared for good hips but may still be a carrier for genes that produce dysplasia or may have other genetic disease problems that are unreported. That same dog may also have close relatives who are affected with one or more genetic diseases but are not reported in the registry. Despite widespread resistance to the use of an open registry, a small but growing number of progressive breeders and breed groups are adopting the open registry concept and looking to GDC for answers. "This past year at GDC we have seen a sharp increase in requests from breeders for help with breeding decisions," said Poulos. "These are responsible people who are very concerned about the amount of genetic disease they are seeing in their breeds. And they are distressed because they simply are not getting the straight answers and practical information they need from the AKC and other traditional sources. It is an ongoing tragedy that the purebred dog fancy has for the most part ignored proven breeding practices that can, in fact, reduce genetic disease in a given breed line within several generations.” In 1990 GDC pioneered a system in the US modeled after the successful Swedish open registry for registering and screening dogs for several of the most widespread and serious genetic diseases. The premise was simple and proven to work. When breeders have virtually complete information on all the close relatives in a dog’s family, they can assess which dogs are carriers for disease genes and make smart breeding decisions based on that knowledge. The open registry system is effective for controlling both single gene diseases like PRA (blindness) or complicated, multiple gene diseases like hip dysplasia. Dr. Poulos noted that the current excitement in the purebred fancy about the potential for genetic testing via DNA has all but eclipsed interest in the use of other methods to control genetic disease. Unfortunately, the practical help that might be provided by this type of genetic testing is likely to be many years away, and developing tests for even single genes is proving to be very difficult and costly. No tests have been developed for multiple (polygenic) gene diseases. For example, the recent discovery of a much smaller number of genes in the human genome than was estimated implies that fewer genes interact in much more complicated ways than scientists expected. Many of the most serious and prevalent genetic diseases are polygenic, and most experts agree that gene tests for these diseases will be very difficult to develop. For these polygenic diseases like hip dysplasia and cancer, genetic pedigree analysis of open registry data rather than gene tests may be the only practical way for breeders to make any headway for years to come. “GDC will continue to register dogs in existing registries over the next year,” said Poulos. “But our major effort now has to be a call to action. If the AKC had established an open registry ten years ago, and used their position as leaders of the purebred dog fancy to push the concept, we would already have seen major reductions in the amount of genetic disease among our dogs. GDC is now looking to join forces with those groups and individuals who think that the time has come to use the tools we have in our hands to fight the genetic diseases that are ruining our dogs." 4/01 END