BELGIUM: Dog study may unveil genetic secrets

Universities examining pedigree dogs may provide some answers to the mystery of genetic illnesses in people through a new European Union-funded project called LUPA. It will try to pinpoint such disorders in pure-bred canines. The work could prove to be valuable as humans share many of the same diseases.

Veterinary clinics from 12 European countries will collect 10,000 DNA samples from a large cohort of dogs either healthy or suffering from a range of 18 defined diseases of relevance to human health such as cancer, heart disease and epilepsy.

To date, despite major efforts, identifying genes making people susceptible to develop common human diseases has been difficult because of the complexity of the human genome. The task is easier in the dog population because each of the 400 pure-bred breeds has a unique genetic isolate due to selection for desired characteristics or from inbreeding.

Breeds participating in the project include the Golden Retriever and Alsatian for cancer, the English Cocker Spaniel for aggressive behaviour, the Doberman Pinscher and Boxer for hypothyroid diseases, the Great Dane and Irish Wolfhound for cardio-vascular disorders, while the West Highland Terrier is being studied for lung diseases.

"Once they have found the gene, they plan to see what role it plays in humans," explained LUPA project leader Professor Michel Georges from the University of Liège in Belgium.

The LUPA project, named after the female wolf that fed the twin founders of Rome, is backed by the EU with EUR12 million (US$15.4 million) in funding and will end in 2012.

The Cambridge University department of veterinary medicine, the institute of genetics from Switzerland's University of Bern and the faculty of life sciences at the University of Copenhagen are among the participating universities.

monica.dobie@uw-news.com