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Jada Hollingsworth

The Effects of Dog Inbreeding

Jada Hollingsworth
October 1, 2014
BIO 260 - Zoology
The Effects of Dog Inbreeding

Genetic Variation is one of the only benefits of sexual reproduction. Sexual reproduction
is time consuming and wastes energy; however, it allows for diversity and variety among species
that is necessary for evolution. Dog Inbreeding is nothing new. People with pure bred dogs want
their pets to remain pure bred, and unless you know a lot of people in your area with the same
exact dog as you that is also unrelated to your pet, its fairly difficult to keep your dogs lineage
down to one specific breed. This means that inbreeding is almost inevitable, unless you decide to
cross breed your pet. The thing that makes it difficult not to inbreed is the fact that dogs do not
have family trees so you dont know if another dog is related to your pet or not. Inbreeding your
dogs may be convenient and requires much less energy on the owners part, but all of its effects
are not good. The result of inbreeding is almost equal to asexual reproduction. Sharing so many
genes that are already so similar will result in deficiencies within the offspring.
The specific animal mentioned in the article is the domestic dog. The purpose was to
investigate the rate of inbreeding and the loss of genetic variation in dog breeds, including
possible correlations between recent inbreeding and health problems and the strong selective
breeding for a few traits are considered to rapidly deplete the genetic variability of many
domestic animal populations. The author resulted there is an extensive loss of genetic variation
and moderate rates of recent inbreeding in 26 dog breeds, but there is no major difference
between breeds classified as healthy vs. unhealthy. This basically means that although many
breeds are guilty of inbreeding, none of them have shown any signs as to whether or not they

were healthy or unhealthy in comparison as a result of their shared DNA. In the experiment, the
author investigated the recent rate of inbreeding and loss of genetic variation in 12 traditional
Swedish dog breeds. She then assessed levels of inbreeding and loss of genetic variation
measured in relation to the number of founding animals (founder alleles) among live animals at
five points in time (1980, 1990, 2000, 2006, and 2012).
In the results, it is said that the average inbreeding coefficients among breeds doubled over their
period of monitoring and the loss of genetic variation was extensive with an average of 70
percent of founder alleles lost over the study period. These results show us that inbreeding is
very present in dogs and is rapidly increasing. I completely agree with this data because it
matches evidence that Ive seen in my own experience knowing people who breed dogs. This
data led the author to write another paper using this information in comparison to wild wolves.
I was very convinced by the authors data. I liked the way she went about her research
and I agreed with her results. The only thing I would change is the fact that there is not much
information on what the inbreeding did to the offspring. She did not go into specifics about what
traits were carried down or whether or not the offspring were successful. A few questions I have
for the author are: can the offspring reproduce, do they have any genetic mutations, are they
hindered in any way, what diseases have they passed down, are they better off, etc. According to
the Canine Inherited Disorder Database, dogs can inherit many different diseases, such as:
disorders of the urinary and reproductive systems, skin disorders, respiratory disorders, nervous
system disorders, musculoskeletal disorders, immune disorders, gastrointestinal disorders,
endocrine disorders, eye disorders, cardiovascular disorders, and blood disorders. If I were to
continue her experiment, I would go deeper into the lives and function of the offspring.

WORKS CITED

Jansson, Mija, Stockholm University, February 7, 2014


<http://www.divaportal.org/smash/record.jsf;jsessionid=dc4939f45301a245ce1c544b600d?
parentRecord=diva2:692880&pid=diva2:694833>

Jansson, Mija Stockholm University, February 13, 2014


<http://www.diva-portal.org/smash/record.jsf?pid=diva2:692880>

Crook, Alice, Atlantic Veterinary College, December 29, 2004


<http://www.upei.ca/~cidd/intro.htm>

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