Prevalence and prevention of deafness in the Dalmatian—Assessing the effect of parental hearing status and gender using ordinary logistic and generalized random litter effect models

doi:10.1016/S1090-0233(97)80050-0

The Veterinary Journal

Volume 154, Issue 2, September 1997, Pages 121-133

https://doi.org/10.1016/S1090-0233(97)80050-0 Get rights and content

Summary

The Dalmatian clog is susceptible to congenital deafness which is thought to be inherited. The condition cannot be treated or cured, but controlled breeding could prevent or minimize the occurrence. An understanding oh the quantitative relationship between the relevant attributes (sex, colour etc.) and the probability of deafness is likely to be of assistance in implementing any breeding programme to eliminate the condition. Most reported studies on Dalmatians have ignored the hearing status of close parental relatives, and none has taken into account the likely positive correlations in dogs from same litters. A composite database, obtained by merging deafness data on 1234 tested Dalmatians with Kennel Club pedigree data on 22 873 Dalmatians in the United Kingdom, has enabled us to include the hearing status of parental relatives and litter effects in our analysis. Contingency tables and ordinary logistic regression were used to obtain preliminary results which could be compared with the findings from other studies based on similar analyses. Further logistic modelling included an additional random effects term for the effect of litters to which the dogs belonged. The preliminary analysis showed that the prevalence of overall deafness in the tested Dalmatians was 18·4%, of which 13·1% were unilaterally deaf, and 5·3% were bilaterally deaf. There was no association between deafness and either testing location or coat colour but prevalence was strongly associated with parental hearing status. In Dalmatians from normal dams the prevalence (15·6%) was significantly lower than in those from untested dams (21·9%). If the parents were both normal or both untested, these figures were 15·3 and 23·6%, respectively, and significantly different. There was a significant gender effect, the prevalence being significantly higher in females (21·1 %) than in males (15·5%), and this was seen in all subsets of data partitioned by parental hearing status, by locations, and by dominant coat colours. The use of generalized modelling, which included the random litter effects yielded point estimates of the prevalence of deafness which were smaller, but with wider confidence limits. Breeding from only tested and proven normal dams and sires is therefore recommended, and should reduce overall deafness to below 15% and bilateral deafness to below 4%.[/b]

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This study evaluates the effects of a high-frequency hearing loss simulated by the high-pass-noise masking method, on the click-evoked brain stem-evoked potentials (BAEP) characteristics in dogs. BAEP were obtained in response to rarefaction and condensation click stimuli from 60 dB normal hearing level (NHL, corresponding to 89 dB sound pressure level) to wave V threshold, using steps of 5 dB in eleven 58 to 80-day-old Beagle puppies. Responses were added, providing an equivalent to alternate polarity clicks, and subtracted, providing the rarefaction–condensation potential (RCDP). The procedure was repeated while constant level, high-pass filtered (HPF) noise was superposed to the click. Cut-off frequencies of the successively used filters were 8, 4, 2 and 1 kHz. For each condition, wave V and RCDP thresholds, and slope of the wave V latency–intensity curve (LIC) were collected. The intensity range at which RCDP could not be recorded (pre-RCDP range) was calculated.
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ReviewPrevalence and prevention of deafness in the Dalmatian—Assessing the effect of parental hearing status and gender using ordinary logistic and generalized random litter effect models

Summary

Preventive Veterinary Medicine

Preventive Veterinary Medicine

Preventive Veterinary Medicine

Preventive Veterinary Medicine

British Veterinary Journal

Categorical Data Analysis

Genetic hearing impairment in the Dalmatian dog

Acta Oto-laryngologica

Epi Info, Version 6: a Word Processing, Database, and Statistics Program for Epidemiology on Microcomputers

Brainstem auditory evoked response. A test with potential

British Veterinary Journal

Hereditary Deafness in the Dalmatian: Relationship to Eye and Coat Color

Journal of the American Animal Hospital Association

Canine congenital deafness: epidemiologic study of 272 cases

Journal of the American Animal Hospital Association

Unilateral and bilateral brainstem auditory evoked response abnormalities in 900 Dalmatian dogs

Journal of Veterinary Internal Medicine

Review
Prevalence and prevention of deafness in the Dalmatian—Assessing the effect of parental hearing status and gender using ordinary logistic and generalized random litter effect models