Post by bubba1990 on Jan 16, 2009 12:48:45 GMT -5
please critique and say of theres places that need more info/what info
After years of being the top Reiner in the AQHYA it is now time to breed your mare to carry on her amazing talents. You’ve searched for the perfect stallion and have finally found him. He is a world champion and has the great Poco Bueno on both sides of his pedigree. So you have your mare bred to him and eleven long months later the foal is finally born. You now have a colt with amazing conformation that should surpass his dam’s show record. Over the next two years you spend every minute working with him and come breaking time you can’t wait to see how he does. After his first ride you are sure he has what it takes to be the next big reining stallion, but all your dreams go down the drain when you take the saddle off only to find deep lacerations along his back and nothing on the saddle could have caused them. Your veterinarian comes out and sends a blood sample to a laboratory only to find out that after spending thousands of dollars and endless hours your colt can never be ridden and should never be used for breeding. I bet your wondering why.
Hereditary Equine Regional Dermal Asthenia or HERDA is a genetic skin disease that has just recently been traced back to the parents of the Quarter Horse Poco Bueno. It has not been proven if the disease started with his sire or dam. Even though the disease is only sire lined back to Poco Bueno, 95% of horses affect by HERDA have the disease through Poco Bueno.
If your horse does have HERDA, odds are you won’t see any prominent signs until they are started under saddle. Some signs to look for are loose skin, unexplainable severe lesions and abnormal healing with the majority of the skin problems being along the back. At this time there is no cure for HERDA and horses are typically euthanized upon discovering that they have the disease. Because of the extensive nature of the disease horses are injured easily and are not ridable due to the saddle literally tearing the skin off of the horse’s back. Horses with HERDA typically don’t live past the age of four.
Testing for HERDA wasn’t available until 2007. As of right now you can only have your horses tested through Cornell and UC Davis. It is simple to have your horses tested. All you have to do is go online for a form, fill it out, and send it in with a few pulled hairs from the main or tail or a blood sample. It typically costs $30 per test. AQHA suggests that around 3.5% of Quarter Horses are affected by HERDA. Even though there is a low possibility that your horse could have HERDA it is still a good idea to have them tested. Any horse that can be sire lined back to Poco Bueno is at risk, breed has no effect. You’re wondering, why should I have my horse tested, some reasons would be to prevent breeding two carriers together, to know if your horse has it or is a carrier and to know if you should have a foal euthanized before you put them through a life of pain or put a lot of money into them.
HERDA is inherited as an autosomal recessive trait. If a gene is autosomal it can be inherited in both males and females. A recessive trait is masked by a dominant one, which means that to produce a foal with HERDA both parents must carry the disease. And of course traits are the different characteristics. Horses that carry the disease are heterozygous for HERDA, so they have one positive and one negative allele. Horses that have the disease have two positive alleles. Alleles come in pairs which make up different genes on a chromosome, which are threads of DNA.
A mutation in the genes of horses with HERDA causes a collagen defect. So when a horse has the disease there is a lack of adhesion within the deep layers of skin. The adhesion acts like glue and holds the layers together, horses with HERDA have a lack of adhesion making the skin fragile and easily tarable.
Even with carriers for HERDA you still want to be careful breeding them and you never want to use a horse with the disease. A long story short if you breed a horse that is only a carrier there will always be a chance of getting a foal that will also be a carrier who can produce foals with the disease. The only way to get rid of the disease is to not breed horses that carry the gene.
To some HERDA is the Russian roulette of genetic horse diseases, there is no cure and the only prevention is by not breeding horses with positive alleles. Until recently there were no tests. So it was a toss up if you would get a foal with HERDA or not. HERDA is much like Overo Lethal White Syndrome in the manner that most horses are euthanized due to the severity.
Like I have already stated, most horses positive for HERDA are traced back to Poco Bueno. Taking that into consideration, horses with the disease are a product of inbreeding, which also means that both parents are carriers of the disease. In some cases inbreeding can be a good choice for your breeding program. Inbreeding allows you to strengthen your genetics, both the good and bad. Obviously with things such as HERDA inbreeding is not always the way to go.
So HERDA is a relatively new disease to the horse world, testing wasn’t even available until 2007. Some good news is that to produce a HERDA foal both parents have the disease, but only one of the parents needs to have a positive allele to produce a foal that is a carrier. Don’t let HERDA become the next terror of the Quarter Horse World. Test your horses and practice wise selective breeding methods.
After years of being the top Reiner in the AQHYA it is now time to breed your mare to carry on her amazing talents. You’ve searched for the perfect stallion and have finally found him. He is a world champion and has the great Poco Bueno on both sides of his pedigree. So you have your mare bred to him and eleven long months later the foal is finally born. You now have a colt with amazing conformation that should surpass his dam’s show record. Over the next two years you spend every minute working with him and come breaking time you can’t wait to see how he does. After his first ride you are sure he has what it takes to be the next big reining stallion, but all your dreams go down the drain when you take the saddle off only to find deep lacerations along his back and nothing on the saddle could have caused them. Your veterinarian comes out and sends a blood sample to a laboratory only to find out that after spending thousands of dollars and endless hours your colt can never be ridden and should never be used for breeding. I bet your wondering why.
Hereditary Equine Regional Dermal Asthenia or HERDA is a genetic skin disease that has just recently been traced back to the parents of the Quarter Horse Poco Bueno. It has not been proven if the disease started with his sire or dam. Even though the disease is only sire lined back to Poco Bueno, 95% of horses affect by HERDA have the disease through Poco Bueno.
If your horse does have HERDA, odds are you won’t see any prominent signs until they are started under saddle. Some signs to look for are loose skin, unexplainable severe lesions and abnormal healing with the majority of the skin problems being along the back. At this time there is no cure for HERDA and horses are typically euthanized upon discovering that they have the disease. Because of the extensive nature of the disease horses are injured easily and are not ridable due to the saddle literally tearing the skin off of the horse’s back. Horses with HERDA typically don’t live past the age of four.
Testing for HERDA wasn’t available until 2007. As of right now you can only have your horses tested through Cornell and UC Davis. It is simple to have your horses tested. All you have to do is go online for a form, fill it out, and send it in with a few pulled hairs from the main or tail or a blood sample. It typically costs $30 per test. AQHA suggests that around 3.5% of Quarter Horses are affected by HERDA. Even though there is a low possibility that your horse could have HERDA it is still a good idea to have them tested. Any horse that can be sire lined back to Poco Bueno is at risk, breed has no effect. You’re wondering, why should I have my horse tested, some reasons would be to prevent breeding two carriers together, to know if your horse has it or is a carrier and to know if you should have a foal euthanized before you put them through a life of pain or put a lot of money into them.
HERDA is inherited as an autosomal recessive trait. If a gene is autosomal it can be inherited in both males and females. A recessive trait is masked by a dominant one, which means that to produce a foal with HERDA both parents must carry the disease. And of course traits are the different characteristics. Horses that carry the disease are heterozygous for HERDA, so they have one positive and one negative allele. Horses that have the disease have two positive alleles. Alleles come in pairs which make up different genes on a chromosome, which are threads of DNA.
A mutation in the genes of horses with HERDA causes a collagen defect. So when a horse has the disease there is a lack of adhesion within the deep layers of skin. The adhesion acts like glue and holds the layers together, horses with HERDA have a lack of adhesion making the skin fragile and easily tarable.
Even with carriers for HERDA you still want to be careful breeding them and you never want to use a horse with the disease. A long story short if you breed a horse that is only a carrier there will always be a chance of getting a foal that will also be a carrier who can produce foals with the disease. The only way to get rid of the disease is to not breed horses that carry the gene.
To some HERDA is the Russian roulette of genetic horse diseases, there is no cure and the only prevention is by not breeding horses with positive alleles. Until recently there were no tests. So it was a toss up if you would get a foal with HERDA or not. HERDA is much like Overo Lethal White Syndrome in the manner that most horses are euthanized due to the severity.
Like I have already stated, most horses positive for HERDA are traced back to Poco Bueno. Taking that into consideration, horses with the disease are a product of inbreeding, which also means that both parents are carriers of the disease. In some cases inbreeding can be a good choice for your breeding program. Inbreeding allows you to strengthen your genetics, both the good and bad. Obviously with things such as HERDA inbreeding is not always the way to go.
So HERDA is a relatively new disease to the horse world, testing wasn’t even available until 2007. Some good news is that to produce a HERDA foal both parents have the disease, but only one of the parents needs to have a positive allele to produce a foal that is a carrier. Don’t let HERDA become the next terror of the Quarter Horse World. Test your horses and practice wise selective breeding methods.