Chondrodysplasia and the Veterinary Practitioner

Chondrodysplasia and the Veterinary Practioner - Minnesota Malamute Club

Blood-Testing

To a very limited extent, hemalological testing was utilized as a third method of screening dogs. The process did not prove to be a valuable weapon in AMCA's arsenal however. The necessity of baselining each laboratory's instruments and procedures against a control group of known genotype dogs in order to establish normal values ultimately made the process infeasible.

In blood testing, eleven different parameters were measured from a sample of blood. These parameters were then submitted to a statistical computer program that enhanced differences and weighted all values in order to determine the most likely genotype for that particular blood sample. Misclassification rate on the control group of fifty dogs was approximately 6% in either direction. [reference 10]

Perhaps in the final analysis, the immensely valuable contribution of the blood test will be recognized as having conclusively demonstrated that the heterozygous animal has measurable differences from the clear animal.

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Linda Dowdy
Bethel, Minnesota
Comments or questions? E-mail me at lindowdy@visi.com