Why your breed needs a genetic management plan

By Carol Beuchat PhD

The Importance of Genetic Management

​The goal for every breeder is to leave their breed healthier and stronger for future generations. But without the right tools, achieving these goals can feel like navigating without a map.

The biggest challenge for breeders of purebred dogs is high levels of inbreeding and the consequences for health. We know that inbreeding has multiple deleterious effects in animals. It increases the risk of recessive genetic disorders being expressed; it causes inbreeding depression, which also affects health; and it results in loss of genetic diversity, which ultimately increases the rate of inbreeding.

Purebred dogs as a group have exceptionally high levels of inbreeding, a consequence of closed stud books that prevent the introduction of fresh genetic diversity to restore that lost over the generations. In addition, it is difficult for breeders to implement the types of genetic management strategies that would control inbreeding and loss of diversity because they simply lack the necessary information. Creating a genetic management plan requires information about the "genetic landscape" of the entire breed - not just individual dogs, or average values for things like inbreeding and kinship, but also data for the variation in these values in the population.

What's the Problem?

​Breeders are recognizing that breeding for health requires that they know more about the dogs and the breed than they did in the past. DNA testing and pedigree analysis can now provide data about the genetics of individual dogs that can be used to reduce the risk of genetic disorders in offspring. What breeders lack, however, is information about the genetic landscape of their breed. When breeders identify a potentially genetic problem, they will try to "breed around" it or remove carriers from breeding. These strategies assume that the genetic solutions they need exist in the breed and they can solve the problem by moving the breed in that direction.

Imagine you are a tourist planning a trip in a place you have never been before. Without a map, you can only navigate by guessing, and you could easily end up in the wrong place or, at the very least, waste lots of time and energy taking wrong turns and running into dead ends. If you don't have the right information, breeding decisions work the same way. Without knowledge of your breed's genetic landscape, you can't plan a path forward or determine if it's even possible to get where you want to go. 
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​The problem here is the assumption that a solution exists within the breed. Remember that recessive mutations cause problems when a dog inherits two copies of the mutation. It's not the presence of the mutation that you have to deal with, but the absence of the "wild type" (normal) version of the allele necessary for the gene to do its job. But breeders focus on mutations, and they diligently try to solve the problem through selective breeding. This takes an ongoing toll on the gene pool, ultimately increasing the risk that some other defective allele will become the next problem in the breed. You can see how this turns into a cycle of genetic whack-a-mole, damaging the gene pool with every cycle while making no progress on the actual problem. This is where we are in most breeds after decades of selective breeding, now guided by DNA tests. We have failed to improve the health of purebred dogs because we have not determined the right path to health. Without a map, we don't see a destination and can't choose a path that will get us there. We invest time, energy, and money, all with fingers crossed, hoping at least that things won't get worse. 

What's the Solution?

The solution to this problem is obvious. Breeders need more information about the genetics of their breed. Not just about one or a few dogs, but about dogs characterizing the breadth of the breed's genetic landscape. Breeders need to be able to determine - before they hit the road - that the chosen breeding path will take them where they want to go. They need also to adopt breeding strategies that will not work against them along the way. Simply removing from the gene pool any dog that has some issue, or restricting breeding to just a small fraction of the dogs produced, will perpetuate the situation we have now and foil attempts to improve it. We need to be able to identify dogs of greatest genetic value so they can be prioritized for breeding. We need to identify sires before they have litter after litter of puppies that will skew the entire gene pool in one direction and flood the breed with his unique assortment of genetic mutations. (See Pox of the Popular Sires) 

Breeders - and breeds - need is a road map of the genetics of the breed across its entire scope, so breeders can design well-planned solutions to problems. We need genetic management plans that identify a path towards a solution, instead of trying to solve problems by trying to run away from them in some random direction.

We have the information we need to create at least a basic plan for most breeds. Pedigree data and individual genotypes can be leveraged to start filling in the blank areas of the genetic landscape with useful information - where to find dogs with useful genetic diversity, where to find outcross candidates for specific dogs, which sires are overproducing at the expense of other genetically valuable dogs, and more. The information breeders need can be extracted from pedigree and DNA data and used to address the questions breeders ask when making breeding decisions. With regular updates, this information resource can display the current genetic status of both the breed and individual. It can also document the progress resulting from breeding strategies designed to reduce inbreeding and protect and improve genetic diversity.

DogsArk: The Genetic Dashboard

The good news is that we CAN get there. We can improve the health of purebred dogs without sacrificing the traits that make each breed unique. And we can do it efficiently and effectively, with tools and expertise that are available to breeders NOW. ​

ICB has built a breeder tool called DogsArk that provides the information breeders need for sound genetic management. Using either pedigree or DNA data, DogsArk provides a "genetic dashboard" that allows you to -
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• Visualize genetic diversity: Identify where genetic diversity is strong and where it is at risk;
  
  
• Track lineages and traits: discover genetic clusters and understand the distribution of traits and mutations;
  
  
• Plan sustainable breeding programs: Use real-time data to make informed decisions that preserve your breed's genetic health.

For the first time, we now have the DogsArk Breeder Tool, which will provide the information needed by dog breeders to safeguard the genetic future of their breed. With DogsArk, we can start to plan breeding strategies that will improve the health and welfare of dogs. (We are in the process of adding breeds and data, and the site is still under construction - pardon our dust!)

Have a look at DogsArk and check out the tutorial for guidance. If you have any questions or would like to add your breed to the site, just drop me an email: [email protected]

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