Hi all,
i was just watching this programme on how bad the inbreeding in dogs in the UK and how terrible the health effects are. for example the cavaliers are having terrible neurological problems in which they brain is pressed to the back of their skull so hard it cannot contract properly, they are culling the rhodesian ridgebacks puppies whom are perfectly healthy without a ridge.
so is this a problem we may experience our beautiful raggies? just wantching this makes me frightened? can i please have your opinions and thoughts?
thanks guys
please note this is note to imply breeders in inbreeding in particular. this is not meant to cause offence to anyone. i am simply wondering are we going to see a similar thing begin to happen to our raggies if not bred properly of course?
are we already experiencing problems? obviously this must be why we test for mpsm, pkd and hcm so we can stop these health problems that are happening to many pedigree dogs in the uk as stated on the documentary.
HCM is the major cause of all heart disease in all cats, including random bred cats. Its presence in Ragdolls was not caused by inbreeding. PKD is not a significant health risk in Ragdolls. There are no reported cases of MPSM in Ragdolls.
The Ragdoll is a non-extreme breed and the focus can more easily be on health, temperament, etc. where there is no health risk in refining the breed gene pool.
In fact, pedigreed animals are MORE likely to be healthy when that is a focus of the selective breeding, although all creatures will get sick and will some day die.
HCM was discovered as a health issue in Ragdolls and the Ragdoll community was able to participate in the effort to identify the problematic mutation and can now breed it out and avoid all of those HCM cases. Without the ability to study KNOWN related cats over generations, the mutation would not have been found and this health benefit would not be possible. A benefit of bred pets.
The future of pets should be that ALL pets are pedigreed and WANTED pets rather than random bred, some of whom will find homes, some of whom will be in feral colonies, some of whom will live in shelters and some of whom will be euthanized.
That was a little barbic with what was going on with the RR breeders club code of ethics .
It is an eye opener and puts a spin on the whole idea of ethics in the dog breeders circle.
it was very frightening. they bred mother son, brother sister, grandad to grandaughter.
and in the dog shows u could see how unstable the german sheppards back legs were. they wobbled all over the joint so to speak.
dannilou Wrote:it was very frightening. they bred mother son, brother sister, grandad to grandaughter.
and in the dog shows u could see how unstable the german sheppards back legs were. they wobbled all over the joint so to speak.
My Jake has a half sister, half brother mating (same mum) on one side. And on the other side another half sister,half brother mating (this time same dad). I was under the understanding that this was okay, considering thats how the whole Ragdoll breed started in the first place. But if I was a breeder, I would only do this if the lines were considerably good which I think was the case with Jake anyway as he has US lines but Im not sure off the top of my head.
Edited for typo.
Line breeding is NOT common in Ragdolls and is a high risk decision. Line breeding is a part of the establishment of a breed and that does not make it appropriate later. Early on, one wants to "set" breed characteristics and line breeding is a way to do that more quickly. Those considerations do NOT apply to later breeding decisions. (Line breeding is common in livestock because one wants to identify and breed out bad recessives, as well as identifying and keeping the good recessives. This is not common in pet breeding because of the value placed on each individual born. Breeding decisions are very different for animals slated for slaughter compared to pets.)
My family raises cattle, and even in that practice we do not breed back to the same bull. I think any kind of inbreeding can cause problems, no matter what type of animal, and should be avoided no matter what the animal is intended for. So many mutations seem to emerge, and quality of life should be important no matter what.
It is that recessive mutations that are already THERE and become effective by the offspring inheriting it from both parents, who both are more likely to have it because they are closely related. That is why such breeding is done in livestock - and any negative outcome is what is sought and is the point of the breedings. It is the only way to accelerate identification of negative recessive mutations so that they can be bred out. Otherwise the negative recessives can spread throughout the entire breed unseen and can only be avoided then by abandoning the breed itself since there are no "safe" members to keep and breed.
Quality of life is a different concept in livestock destined for slaughter. Unwanted recessive members just end up on your plate sooner than otherwise.