Читать книгу Pet-Specific Care for the Veterinary Team - Группа авторов - Страница 280

There are several genetic testing laboratories that will calculate inbreeding and genetic diversity indexes on purebred dogs or cats and make recommendations to increase heterozygosity. These are based on guidelines that are valid in endangered species preservation, but not in purebred dog or pedigree cat breeding. The gene dynamics of endangered species and purebred dog and cat breeding are directly opposite from each other.

The basis of creating a breed is selection and genetic uniformity and the basis of endangered species preservation is the randomization of genes through mating the most unrelated individuals together. Some breeds are more ancient and have larger measured genetic diversity while more recently formed breeds with smaller populations may have lower measured genetic diversity. The larger population breeds with greater measured diversity once looked like the smaller population breeds when they first began to grow their population. The size of the gene pool and measured genetic diversity does not correlate to genetic health, as this is based on the presence of disease liability genes. Some genetic testing laboratories test for MHC genes as a measurement of genetic diversity and the immune system. However, no immune‐related or autoimmune diseases are shown to be caused by a decrease of MHC diversity. They are caused by specific mutations or alleles in the MHC that predispose to disease with one or two copies of a mutation.