Staffordshire Terrier Club of America - Health Committee
Chairperson: Faith Beiser
Members: Sharon Gregory, Sandy Underwood, Heidi McClure, Linn Cabral
Contact: health@amstaff.org
Ataxia Update:
January 2008
Update on Research into the Genetic Cause of Hereditary Ataxia in American Staffordshire Terriers
This is a brief update to let you know that we are continuing to make good progress with our research into Hereditary Ataxia in American Staffordshire Terriers. The last update I gave reported that we had established linkage between the disease and a limited region of a chromosome. This region was large, too large to identify one particular gene that could be causing the disease. In order to address this problem, we submitted a grant proposal to the AKC Canine Health Foundation requesting funding for the next step in our research - fine mapping of the linked region and sequencing of candidate genes. The grant has been approved and we expect to have the funding available to us shortly. In the interim, with the support of the STCA, we have genotyped a much larger number of dogs (nearly 100) and added in closely spaced markers over the linked region. As a result, we have been able to narrow down the area of linkage and we are getting ready to sequence one particular gene that could be linked to the disease. Over the next year we will work on the possible candidate genes in the linked region with the hope that they will lead us to the causative mutation and hence to a genetic test. If you know anyone with an affected dog, we would love to hear from them, and if you would like to make a donation to support the research, please contact Faith Beiser. Thank you all for your continued support and we hope that 2008 will be a productive year.
Natasha Olby (natasha_olby@ncsu.edu)
Dear members of the STCA,
It was a great pleasure for me to meet many of you and to see your beautiful dogs at the national show in Texas. Thank you so much for inviting me and listening to my presentation. Thank you in particular to Faith Beiser; she is a wonderful advocate for the STCA. The most recent set of sampling protocol sheets and consent forms can be downloaded from the health page. Please note that Jeanne Burr no longer works at NCSU and Pragna Mehta has replaced her as a contact person and technician on the project. Pragna's e mail address is pragna_mehta@ncsu.edu and telephone number is 919.513.7235.
Please do not hesitate to contact me (natasha_olby@ncsu.edu) or Pragna if you have any questions.
Sincerely,
Natasha Olby
