[Cagdu] FW: ] Japan to Freeze Guide Dog Semen & Eggs to Create More Guide Dogs
Tina Thomas
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Sat Mar 10 15:56:13 PST 2007
Tina, Nina and Sicily
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Subject: Japan to Freeze Guide Dog Semen & Eggs to Create More Guide Dogs
http://www.asahi.
<http://www.asahi.com/english/Herald-asahi/TKY200703100058.html>
com/english/Herald-asahi/TKY200703100058.html
Top dogs will have their day under breeding plan 03/10/2007
BY AKIKO OKAZAKI THE ASAHI SHIMBUN
Any dog can turn a trick or two, but few have the smarts to
perform one of the most coveted of of skills--ensuring sight-impaired people
stay safe. But now researchers say they can vastly increase the number
of top-notch guide dogs across the nation. Using gene analysis to
select excellent guide dogs, the team plans to freeze their sperm and ovary
tissue in a "bio bank." The reproductive matter will then be used to breed a
legion of outstanding canine escorts. The announcement could not come
soon enough for Japan's visually impaired community, given the dire shortage
of high-quality "seeing-eye" companions across the nation. Under the
current system of seeing-eye dog training, a guide dog proves itself a
polished performer only after it has lost the chance to breed. By the time
they start training, the dogs have already been castrated or spayed--a
requirement for serving the blind as competent guides and friends. But
a research team
led by Hiroshi Suzuki, a professor of functional genomics at Obihiro
University of Agriculture and Veterinary Medicine in Hokkaido, believes it
can overcome the problem by using preserved sperm and eggs from the best
dogs to produce more outstanding companions. Suzuki's team found that
the genes of the best guide dogs all had similarities in their DNA. The
project was announced Feb. 23 at the annual meeting of the Japan Veterinary
Medical Association in Saitama. According to Suzuki, nothing like this
has been attempted before. He intends to start the project in April. As
of March last year, 952 guide dogs were serving sight-impaired people in
Japan, according to the National Council of the Agencies for the Welfare of
the Blind. The figure falls drastically short of the 7,800 people who
said they wanted seeing-eye dogs in a 1998 survey by the Nippon Foundation,
which assists guide dog projects. Guide dogs require rigorous and
extended training.
Male puppies must undergo surgical castration at about six months. Females
are sterilized at eight to 11 months. At the age of 1, they are put
through an aptitude test. Successful candidates go on to training, but only
30 to 40 percent of all candidates become seeing-eye dogs. To raise
that number, Suzuki's team analyzed the genes of about 200 Labrador
retrievers that underwent training. The research was carried out in
collaboration with RIKEN, a physics and chemical research institute.
Their DNA analysis showed a close link between the types of five SNPs
(single nucleotide polymorphisms) that are believed to affect a dog's
personality and their success rates. SNPs represent subtle individual
variations of DNAs. The most successful dogs are friendly and have high
concentration spans. The analysis revealed that 82 percent of dogs that
showed all of the five specific SNP types went on to become guide dogs,
compared with 60 to 70 percent for those
with only one of the five SNPs. Dogs with none had a 20 percent
success rate. To compile a database of "excellent genes," Suzuki's team
will analyze more dogs in collaboration with nine groups that breed or train
guide dogs. The team also plans to start a bio bank which will offer
sperm or eggs at the request of breeders. Frozen sperm has already been
used to produce puppies. The team has also implanted frozen ovarian tissue
into a host female dog to find out if a puppy can be produced. It is still
awaiting results of that experiment. Yoshihiro Hayashi, an agricultural
and life sciences expert, supports the idea. The University of Tokyo
professor, who heads the Society for the Study of Human-Animal Relations,
said service dogs like seeing-eye dogs must stay fit and healthy because
their duties are so demanding. "Reducing possibilities of genetic
diseases and other risks by conducting more analysis of dog genes is needed,
not just for
people but for the welfare of dogs," Hayashi said. "I think there will
be no ethical problems because the genetic information of dogs is different
from personal information of human beings."(IHT/Asahi: March 10,2007)
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