Just for discussion

[Little Wee Horse Farm]

Hmmm.... I know we're not geneticists, but some of us have had dwarves pop up in our breeding programs....me? Only twice in 20 years of breeding minis and those were from the same stallion...........but the latest thought I've heard on human dwarfism gives me reason to think again about the standard belief that it takes two dwarf genes (one from each parent) to make a baby that's a dwarf.

I was watching a TV show on human dwarfism. The statement was made that it WAS believed previously that two genes were needed. This show, however, said that dwarfism is RANDOM & can occur any time - in humans. My question or muse then is this: If this is the case in humans, could it possibly be the same in horses?

What do you all think? What are your experiences with this? Just a discussion topic, seeing as this is a forum. Thanks for your input. - k

 

[mistyrose]

There is a type of dwarfism in humans that is the result of a mutation. The mutation is a type that is easily repeated ie not due to radiation etc. This mutation is then a dominant gene if the dwarf has offspring.

There are at least 78 types of dwarfism in humans. Some are random occurances and some are not.

We don't know enough yet about dwarfism in horses to even talk about whether it is reccesive or not. That is why our support of the research being done at Texas AM and University of Kentucky is so important.

To donate to this reseach at Texas AM send donations to:

The checks need to be payable to "TAMU Foundation". They need to be mailed to Jerry Zalmanek's attention at the address shown below to this person. The accompanying letter should state that the funds are to be earmarked for the benefit of research endeavors in the area of Miniature horse dwarfism and there are no stipulations on their use. Once an acct number has been established, it would be helpful to have it listed in the letters as well.

Merrie Noak

Business Coordinator I

Dept. of Veterinary Integrative Biosciences

Texas A&M University

4458 TAMU

College Station, TX 77843-4458

Attention Jerry Zalmanek



To donate to University of Kentucky send donations to:

Send John Eberth- Dept of Veterinary Science 108 Gluck Equine Research Center University of Kentucky Lexington KY 40546-0099

If you have a dwarf born you want to donate to research contact John Eberth before any thing is done!

 

[Little Wee Horse Farm]

Ok.........well said! I guess this was a short topic!

You never know who's on here or what they know.

 

[anita]

I watch the Little people.

I believe it needs two to tango, mare and stallion.

Anita

 

[FoRebel]

From what I have understood about dwarfism in minis is that you need two genes to create a dwarf. I don't know that for sure but this is what I have understood from the information that I have read.

I have a mare (Trixie) that supposedly has had a dwarf foal... she does have a little wider head like what you find in dwarfs but she's supposedly only had one dwarf foal ever. She's had 3 foals though and the first 2 were fine. I had her bred for 2007 but she aborted and I had bred her prior to knowing about the supposed dwarf, but I had her bred to my stud Jet who has never bred a dwarf foal. So, since she isn't bred for 2007 anymore I have no idea what we would've come up with.

 

[rabbitsfizz]

As said there is little or no correlation between Human Dwarfism and Equine.

I do not believe all forms of Equine Dwarfism require two genes BUT whilst we sit here debating we could be sending money to help research to take out the guesswork!!!!

 

[Nathan Luszcz]

There is a lot of research out there that is severely underfunded

There are LOTS of very smart people trying their hardest to design experiments to further our understanding of the equine body (and mind, believe it or not!) and many of them are stagnant or culled due to lack of funding. As focus for grants shifts towards diseases and human problems, it becomes harder and harder to justify using horses (or other animals) as models to solve those problems. The mare is a really good model for the reproductive function of woman, and stallions hold the secrets for the understanding of men sexual diseases as well. Both genders have very low incidences of cancer in their reproductive tracts, whereas humans have much higher incidences... if we understood why we could understand the human diseases. This is a big change of topic, but it goes along with the donation theme

If you have questions about ANY part of the horse, find a school or lab trying to learn more and see how you can help. They (and we) thank you very much for your help. Here at CSU almost all of our funding comes from private people, so we depend greatly on the generosity of the horse owners everywhere. Be it for dwarfism or anything else, please support your local (and not so local) schools