06/16/2023
Another big reason I’m crossing European and American lines. Genetic diversity to improve the health of Dobermans ❤️
Major Takeaway #3: We've shown that different lines clearly have different disease risks. Analysis of American and European populations show different risks of cardiac disease VS bloat VS Wobbler Syndrome VS certain cancers. Each subpopulation of Dobermans ALSO shows strong homozygosity in specific areas of the genome, but the fixed regions are not all the same depending on the lines. This may provide a critical clue as to why certain lines are more/less at risk for disease than others. Additionally, certain subpopulations show hallmark signs of inbreeding depression, such as the European working-bred population. Strategic breeding COULD help reduce inbreeding depression and reduce disease risk.
A quote from the study: "Array variant analysis shows that inter-crossing between European and USA-bred Dobermans has capacity to re-introduce variation at many loci that are strongly homozygous." BUT inter-crossing lines is NOT the only answer! It doesn't end there and we'll explain why in the next post...
Study: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10240686/
