Deafness rates and traits in Dogo Argentino dogs

Abstract

BACKGROUND: The Dogo Argentino dog breed is affected by hereditary congenital sensorineural deafness (CSD) associated with white pigmentation, but prevalence data and associations with phenotypes have not been reported. METHODS: In a retrospective study, animals were tested by the brainstem auditory evoked response, and phenotype data of sex, iris color, patch presence/absence and parent hearing status were collected. Chi-square analyses were performed to identify associations between deafness and phenotype traits. RESULTS: BAER results and phenotype data were collected for 811 dogs. Hearing status was 74.23% bilaterally hearing, 20.35% unilaterally deaf and 5.43% bilaterally deaf or an overall prevalence of 25.77%. CSD was not associated with sex, but dogs without a patch had a significantly higher prevalence rate than patched dogs. Blue-eyed dogs had higher prevalence rates than brown-eyed dogs, but because of small sample size the χassociation was not considered valid. Insufficient numbers of dogs with a unilaterally deaf parent were present to assess the effects of parent hearing status. CONCLUSION: Approximately one fourth of a US Dogo Argentino population was deaf in one or both ears, but dogs with a patch had a lower prevalence. Dogs with a blue eye were more likely to be deaf, but the association significance could not be reliably assessed.