Peer-reviewed veterinary case report
How common is Pelger-Huët anomaly in different dog breeds
By Carli, Erika et al.·Published in Frontiers in veterinary science·2025·Department of Cardiac, Italy·View original on PubMed →
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Original publication title: Prevalence of hyposegmentation of granulocytes/Pelger-Huët anomaly in different canine breeds: a Bayesian approach.
- Species:
- dog
Plain-English summary
A study found that a rare blood condition called Pelger-Huët anomaly (PHA), which affects how certain white blood cells look, was present in some dog breeds. The condition was most common in Australian Shepherds, where about 7.1% were affected, but it was also found in Dachshunds and Samoyeds, among others. Overall, only 0.45% of the dogs studied had this condition. The research highlights that while PHA is primarily noted in Australian Shepherds, it can also occur in other breeds, including Dachshunds, which had not been documented before.
People also search for: Australian Shepherd blood disorder · Dachshund Pelger-Huët anomaly · dog white blood cell problems
Abstract
Pelger-Huët anomaly (PHA) is a benign congenital hematological disorder first observed in humans and occasionally reported in dogs. It has been mainly described in Australian Shepherd Dog (ASD) with a prevalence of 9.8-13% where, based on a genetic study, it was recently renamed hyposegmentation of granulocytes (HG). Prevalences in other canine breeds have not been documented. This study aims to: (1) estimate the prevalence of HG/PHA across various breeds, (2) quantify the uncertainty of the estimated values using a Bayesian approach, and (3) identify affected breeds not previously documented. This cross-sectional study was based on the CBC database of the San Marco Veterinary Clinic and Laboratory (Padua, Italy) from 2001 to 2024. Data were collected from dogs diagnosed with HG/PHA and breeds previously reported as affected. To handle limited data and provide reliable estimates, Bayesian analysis was performed to estimate the prevalence of the anomaly and its uncertainty, using posterior probabilities from an informative prior model. The analysis adhered to the Bayesian Analysis Reporting Guidelines (BARG). The study included 5,716 dogs: German Shepherd (GS, 40%), Dachshund (DA, 22.6%), Cocker Spaniel (CS, 17.3%), Border Collie (BC, 9.5%), ASD (5.9%), Samoyed (SA, 2.2%), Boston Terrier (BT, 1.6%), Australian Cattle Dog (ACD, 0.7%) and Basenji (BA, 0.2%). Overall, HG/PHA was found in 0.45% dogs, specifically in ASD (7.1%), SA (0.8%) and DA (0.08%) and not in the other breeds. The prevalence estimates were 6.47% in ASD with 95% Credible Interval (95% CrI) from 4.22 to 9.18%, 0.32% (95% CrI: 0.04, 1.11%) in SA, 0.2% (95% CrI: 0.02, 0.86%) in BA, 0.18% (95% CrI: 0.02, 0.77%) in ACD, 0.16% (95% CrI: 0.02, 0.64%) in BT, 0.11% (95% CrI: 0.02, 0.30%) in DA, 0.10% (95% CrI: 0.01, 0.34%) in BC, 0.08% (95% CrI: 0.01, 0.25%) in CS, 0.05% (95% CrI: 0.01, 0.15%) in GS. HG/PHA was newly identified in DA. This study, using laboratory data collected over two decades and analyzed with Bayesian methods, could be considered representative of the prevalence of HG/PHA in multiple canine breeds. It is the first study to estimate the prevalence of HG/PHA beyond ASD, highlighting breed-specific differences in a real-world setting.
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Search related cases →Original publication on PubMed: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/40567546/