Alongside our current genetic investigations of idiopathic epilepsy in the Border Collie and Italian Spinone, we are embarking on an exciting new study starting this year to investigate the genetics of epilepsy in five new breeds – the Beagle, English Springer Spaniel, Giant Schnauzer, Hungarian Vizsla and Irish Setter.
This two-year study is a collaboration with Linnaeus, the University of Helsinki and other veterinarians/research groups within our field, where we will utilise a newly developed approach, based on whole genome sequencing (WGS), to study the disease.
We are also keen to utilise the genomes of idiopathic epilepsy cases generated as part of the Give a Dog a Genome project, and so an arm of the study will extend to all of the breeds that participated in this project.
We are currently refreshing our website, so do look out for updates, and we hope to run a webinar later in the year to explain our study in more detail. More information coming soon as the study progresses!
