Norsk versjon
Whippet health and breeding has become a hot topic in recent years. So hot a topic that it spreads far beyond whippet owners, breeders and the whippet community. Maybe not so strange considering that whippets have increased considerably in population over the past 6 years.

Before I go into some details about genetics and health and how I select breeding animals, we will look at statistics on whippet puppies born in Norway over the past 20 years.

In the period 01.01.07 – 01.01.18, a total of 379 litters were born in these 11 years with a total of 2259 puppies in Norway only. 6 puppies have been reported stillborn and it is a bit difficult to read from the statistics whether these 6 are included in the 2259 or whether they are additional (Source NKK). In the last 6 years, the period from 01.01.18 – 01.01.24, 346 litters have been born in Norway with a total of 2158 puppies. 70 puppies have been reported stillborn in these 6 years.

Based on the overview from NKK, it appears that reporting of stillborn puppies only started in November 2016, so the lack of overview of stillborn puppies in the 11-year period I am referring to may be due to the fact that there were no reporting methods for it in NKK before the end of 2016.

The 11-year period 01.01.07 – 01.01.18 had an average of 34.46 litters per year, while the period 01.01.18 – 01.01.24 (i.e. the last 6 years) has had an average of 57.67 litters born per year. These are figures for litters registered in NKK in these periods.

If we divide it into two periods of ten years each, the figures look like this:

01.01.03 – 01.01.13 – 296 litters with a total of 1673 puppies born in this 10-year period.

01.01.14 – 01.01.24 – 501 litters with a total of 3132 puppies born in this 10-year period.

This gives a 69.3% increase in the number of litters in the last 10 years and an 87.2% increase in the number of puppies born.

This data indicates a significant growth in both the number of litters and the number of puppies born among Whippets over the specified period. With a percentage increase of 69.3% in the number of litters and 87.2% in the number of puppies born, the figures show a marked upward trend in population growth for the breed.

Population growth does not necessarily lead to an increase in health problems in a breed, but with an increase in the number of individuals there will naturally also be an increase in the number of individuals who have a health challenge. I will do a simple math to show what I mean:

In the period from 01.01.03 – 01.01.13, 1673 puppies were born. 874 of these were male dogs (Source NKK). If we take cryptorchidism, which is believed to affect 6.8% of males (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9514118/), there will statistically be about 59 individuals in this period who could be affected by it.

In the period from 01.01.13-01.01.23, 3132 puppies were born. 1656 of these were males. This gives a statistical possibility that 113 males developed cryptorchidism in this 10-year period.

Still, one cannot say that cryptorchidism has become a major problem in whippets, but due to the increase in the number of individuals, it will also lead to more individuals being affected.

If you want to read more about cryptorchidism (Chryptorchisme), you can read here:

Testikler i buken

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/1677504/

https://www.petmd.com/dog/conditions/reproductive/c_multi_cryptorchidism

This also applies to other types of health challenges. With an increase in population, we will see more individuals with hereditary diseases such as PRA and other hereditary eye diseases, various forms of heart defects and what has recently been a hot potato: LTV. (The article is currently linked to a case in a cat, but there is a lot described about LTV in dogs in the article as well. Will update the link eventually). You can also find some links about LTV via The University of Sydney.

In addition, we have different types of autoimmune diseases that can arise in different ways, either via environmental factors or random mutations. Examples of these are Fanconi syndrome and Pancreatitis which can be acquired or congenital, and Addison’s disease for which the cause is unknown. And many other autoimmune diseases.

What I am trying to get across is that the increase in disease cases does not necessarily have to be due to it having become a larger or more widespread problem in the breed, but as shown in the piece above, that it may be a result of an increasing number of individuals over the past 10 years.

Of course, you should also take health seriously. No breeder in their right mind wants to breed sick dogs. Sick dogs are just tragic in every way, both for the breeder, the dog owner and not least the dog itself.

To understand how much a breeder has to maneuver through, we need to understand a little about genetics.

Disease can occur in offspring from healthy parents. Genetics is complex and sometimes unexpected mutations also appear. It is a big map to maneuver in, and it should be maneuvered with caution and humility. According to The University of Sydney, there are a total of 930 discovered phenotypes in dogs. In addition, 365 gene codes associated with some of the phenotypes have been mapped.

The easiest way to explain this is to use Factor VII deficiency in the Scottish Deerhound as an explanatory model. Factor VII deficiency is the phenotype, i.e. how various genes are expressed, including hemorrhagic disease in the Scottish Deerhound. Unlike some other phenotypes for which it can be difficult to find the gene code, researchers have found the gene code that leads to hemorrhagic disease, which is Factor VII deficiency, and the gene code is 607661 with the official symbol F7. F7 is a recessive gene, and if two dogs that are carriers of the gene are mated, the offspring will have hemorrhagic disease. However, one that carries F7 can be mated with a partner that is completely free of the F7 gene and none of the offspring will be sick, but may be carriers. It is therefore important to test for this gene when making a combination in the Scottish Deerhound. If you combine two free individuals, all the offspring will also be free. But since the Scottish Deerhound has such a small gene pool, it has been chosen to also use carrier + free when breeding if there are other good criteria present for making such a combination. If only free individuals were used, the gene pool would be so small that there is a risk that other disease mutations will appear, which may not be as easy to control because the gene code cannot be found.

When it comes to whippets, there is not enough research to be able to specify which gene codes cause different diseases. It is important to keep in mind that a gene code for blue eyes in a husky does not have to have the same gene code for blue eyes in a whippet, so it is not just as simple as seeing what other breeds have found out about gene codes related to phenotypes.

The breeds we know today were mostly started in the 19th century. The development of the different breeds took time, and it was only when there were enough individuals to be called a breed that the stud books were closed. This means that the whippets that are bred from today all have roots back to the first whippets that were recognized as purebred and no new genes have been introduced since that time. This means that if you look at a pedigree and scroll back you will have a large ancestral loss the further back you go, and breeders today thus have the same original gene pool from which to work regardless of the country or continent. I’ll explain a little about that in another post that will be about the Whippet Archive.

A closed studbook means that what is found in the breed in question will always have the possibility of appearing in later generations. Then you also have random mutations that occur along the way, and unwanted mutations can occur more often if you have tunnel vision in the choice of parent animals.

A breeder must take into account the genetics, which includes everything, including heart, eyes, immune system, stomach, mentality, lifespan, prolapse, epilepsy, LTV, everything that must be taken into account in order to try to create the healthiest individuals possible.

If you go too narrowly and exclude all LTV degrees it can lead to (here I say can happen, not that it definitely will happen) an increase in other serious health conditions on a different level.

Research has repeatedly shown (here I will come up with articles that substantiate the claim, I just need some time) that exactly that happens if you only have one focus in mind.

Astrid Indrebø is good at this and has been researching this for years.

If you choose to open a studbook to introduce new genes, you will bring the other breed’s genetic variation with you, for better or for worse. This means that if you get something negative through crossing another breed, you have one more thing on the list of things that need to be kept track of. Not all diseases are genetic tests for, and most diseases are inherited so-called recessive – which means that the disease is not expressed until the gene is doubled. If they had not been recessive, which means hidden expression, we would have been able to eradicate diseases.

Then there was a good thing a person said to me one day – we do a lot of research on sick animals in the dog world. But we do little research on healthy dogs to find out what actually is part of normal variations in relation to functionality and clinically healthy dogs. Production animal breeders are better at that, and perhaps the dog world should look a little in that direction for good advice on the way forward?

In statistics regarding health and which dogs live the longest and are the healthiest breeds, the Whippet reigns high in the statistics (will come back with sources).

Even with the enormous focus over the last two years on LTV as a problem we should be careful of, I believe that without solid research in the area it is difficult to start a plan for further breeding.

So far we know (without certainty or further research) that LTV4+LTV4 can give LTV0 and that LTV0 +LTV0 can give variants of the other degrees. What happens if we stop using 2 and 4 in breeding? No matter how many whippets there are worldwide, they all descend from the first dogs and all whippets therefore share basic DNA.

Research takes time and you need professionals to guide you, otherwise things can go wrong in other areas. When German Shepherds were only bred on HD A and B, the statistics for that period showed that they had never before had such a high proportion of HD C and D, so they had to go back to the start. Unfortunately, I do not have a source for this, a lady I worked with on group assignments on a breeding advice course via NKK told me this. I’ll see if I can track down documentation for this claim.

RAS (Breed-specific breeding strategy) is a document that the various clubs develop based on health examinations and the current health status of the various breeds, and which is intended to function as a guide for breeders. RAS has been put on hold by NKK as a result of the Norwegian Food Safety Authority’s new regulations for breeding that are to come.

So what do I do as a breeder to navigate disease, health, temperament and exterior when there are still no recommendations made by the breed club or breeding requirements for whippets?

I know from the past that typical health challenges in whippets have been PRA (eye disease) and heart problems. However, in relation to the number of individuals born nationwide and elsewhere in Europe (which is often our extended gene pool – i.e. that we obtain genetic material from both Scandinavia and Europe), there are no statistics that this is a major and increasing problem in the breed. Nevertheless, we perform eye examinations and ultrasound/heart checks of our breeding animals at regular intervals. We also try to keep track of cryptorchidism by avoiding crossing lines that have many cases of it close to each other.

When it comes to LTV in particular, I believe that we have a long way to go before a breeding recommendation can be made, precisely because we do not yet know the inheritance or which gene markers (phenotypes and gene codes) cause the different types and degrees of LTV. We also do not have an overview of what percentage of whippets with LTV are affected by it, or what percentage live completely healthy, unproblematic lives with LTV – what Astri Indrebø calls clinically healthy dogs (i.e. they live with a phenotype, but are experienced as unaffected and therefore healthy).

In order to become wiser in knowledge about LTV, structured and long-term research is needed. Finland has been conducting research on LTV since 2017. When time allows, I will read up a little more on what Finland has come up with so far.

Right now, my thoughts revolve around the following when it comes to LTV;

What steps should be taken? Should we X-ray all whippets over a 5-year period and see the extent? How do we map heredity? Is there a DNA marker? Are we painting ourselves into a corner if we only breed LTV0 and LTV1, or are we painting ourselves into a corner if we breed at all grades? What about secondary diseases as a result of narrowing the breeding stock? Should we have a period of inbreeding? What about other diseases that can come in via the other breed that is crossed? What about other mutations that come as a result of a one-sided focus?

Veterinarians do not yet know the inheritance of LTV, but at NMBU they are now researching the connection between HD and LTV. This means that they have a different focus on the research than the grading Finland does. Another thing is all those with LTV who live their entire lives without symptoms. Where do we put them in the category?

Furthermore, we have a worldwide whippet population. We breed across borders and import whippets from outside. What is the view of the rest of the world on LTV and how do we cooperate on the way forward if it turns out to be more serious than we expect? Or is the LTV fear blown out of proportion?

The only right thing to do is to wait for the research to progress further, and for the club to have time and opportunity to understand what this will lead to in the long term, and by that I mean for the overall good of the breed.