Shedding light on canine pituitary dwarfism

Pituitary dwarfism, associated with growth hormone (GH) deficiency, is an autosomal, recessively inherited disorder in shepherd dogs. As outlined in reference [49], pituitary dwarfism is a serious illness and clinical signs are not limited to physical appearance. Instead, the dwarfs suffer from a whole range of clinical manifestations. Without proper treatment, the long-term prognosis is poor. Many dwarfs will not live more than 4 to 5 years, and although the prognosis improves significantly when dwarfs are properly treated with porcine GH and synthetic levo-thyroxine, their prognosis still remains guarded. The good news is that pituitary dwarfism is easily preventable. As long as mating between 2 carriers of the mutation that leads to pituitary dwarfism is prevented, no dwarfs will be born. Unfortunately, carriers of the mutation associated with pituitary dwarfism cannot be distinguished easily from dogs free of the mutation. The availability of a diagnostic DNA test, however, would enable breeders to prevent dwarfs form being born by testing the carrier status of potential breeding animals and applying a correct breeding policy. But before such a test could be developed, the mutated gene had to be identified first.