The CGC’s idiopathic epilepsy research project has taken on a real Vizsla vibe this week, as dozens of Vizsla owners from around the world have reached out to support our work.
“I’ve been contacting our list of Vizsla owners to ask whether they’d like to take part in our study, and we’ve had an amazing response,” commented Jim Johnson, CGC’s idiopathic epilepsy study coordinator. “In just a few days, I’ve dispatched swab sample kits for 30 Vizslas.”
Compiling the Vizsla spreadsheet
The database of Vizsla owners interested in learning more about our idiopathic epilepsy project was started in September last year by Sue Millson, the then Breed Health Coordinator for the Hungarian Vizsla. This task has since been continued by Dr. Verity Griffiths, who took over the role following Sue’s retirement after nearly three decades of service.
“We’ve already contacted owners on this list with dogs that have epilepsy. This time, we wrote to owners of unaffected Vizslas to add to our control set,” said Jim. “These dogs must be at least eight years old and have never shown any signs of epilepsy. We collect their DNA to compare it with DNA from dogs with epilepsy. These samples will be important at the later stage of our project next year to help validate the variants that we identify from our whole-genome sequences that may be linked to the condition.”
Global participation
The recent Vizsla participants have come from all over the world. “In the last few days, we’ve posted kits not only to addresses across the UK but also to Australia, New Zealand, and the United States,” Jim added.
While this latest drive has significantly boosted the number of Vizslas needed for the study, at the same time we are continuing to recruit participants from our other current focus breeds: English Springers, Beagles, Irish Setters, and Giant Schnauzers. A new drive for participants from these breeds is planned for early 2025.
Our epilepsy project is progressing well. The whole-genome sequencing (WGS) data from the first phase of this study is currently being finalised and will soon be integrated with the rest of the WGS data for analysis. Click here to learn more about WGS, and how we use this data at the CGC.
