"Haemophilia A" use to be a problem in the breed and all stud dog use to be tested. Over the past few years there have no positive tests for haemophiliacs. So I guess we all became slightly complacent by not testing our males and using stud dogs that were not tested. Sadly this year 2 males have tested positive for the disease, again making us realise the importance of testing our stud dogs. (Luckily these males were not used for breeding) As I intend allowing Nico to be used at stud I had him tested last week and the results were through in a matter of days. So to add to his list of health tests Nico is now "Haemophilia A - Normal."What we need to know
"Like in humans it is only the male that is affected by the disease. In theory a female could be affected if an affected male was mated to a carrier female, but this would be an extremely rare occurrence.
Blood tests can be done to detect haemophilia, meaning that males can then be certified clear of the disease.
However, due to the mode of inheritance of the disease, only the males can be declared clear. It is inherited as a sex-linked recessive gene.
A male affected with haemophilia will produce sons who are clear of the disease and daughters who will not be affected, but will all be carriers.
These daughters will then produce males affected by the disease. It is not possible, however to test for carrier status, therefore females are not tested. It is therefore important that all males are tested clear before being used for breeding, so that they cannot pass the gene to their daughters.
A male cannot carry the disease, he is either affected or clear."
