EDITORIAL Open Access

Every dog has its day: a new journal for caninegenetics and epidemiologyWilliam ER Ollier* and Lorna J Kennedy

The launch of a new journal dedicated to canine geneticsand epidemiology is both timely, and needed, to supportresearch communities within veterinary medicine, wild-life conservation, evolutionary biology and canine com-parative health genetics. In this context, we are delightedto announce the launch of Canine Genetics and Epi-demiology, an open access journal published by BioMedCentral with the support and backing of the UK KennelClub.The last decade has witnessed an unprecedented in-

crease in genetic analysis of canine species especially thedomestic dog. This has largely been driven throughmajor advances in molecular biology, high throughputDNA sequencing and genotyping, comparative genom-ics, statistical methodology and the development of highpowered computers. Sequencing of the dog genome hasbeen a critical factor for driving this progress. The im-portance of the dog, both to science and veterinarymedicine, is underscored by the fact that its genome wasone of the first mammalian species to be sequenced afterman. Having established the dog genome sequence, weare now defining the level of genetic variability bothwithin and between breeds, and investigating and refiningthe evolutionary relationships between canine species.Such knowledge is now having an impact on research,translating into clinical benefit through the introductionof new screening initiatives for disease related gene vari-ants and also informing breeding programmes. Eventuallygenetic knowledge will help tailor and optimise thera-peutic dosage and indicate which drugs should be used oravoided.These advances are now leading to major discoveries,

which need to be published as quickly as possible, andcommunicated to the widest possible audience. It can bedifficult to publish canine genetic and epidemiologicalstudies in specialist (mainly human) journals, as they arelikely to be assessed by referees who are more experienced

with human rather than canine research. Some aspects ofstudy design for canine genetic analyses differ significantlyfrom the way human population studies are currently in-vestigated. This is because human populations tend to bemostly unrelated, in contrast to the dog, where withinbreeds, dogs are often closely related. Human disease asso-ciation studies can require sample sizes of many thousandsof cases and controls to generate the statistical powerneeded to detect genetic risk factors; in canine studies ithas been shown that sample sizes of a hundred or fewermay suffice. Furthermore, statistical analyses used for hu-man studies may be inappropriate for use in canine studiesof inbred populations. Existing journals are often too gen-eral to assess canine genetic and epidemiology papers ap-propriately and may not have sufficient specialist refereessince each journal receives a limited number of canine pa-pers. Currently, it is rare to have rapid publication of ca-nine genetics research.Epidemiological studies exploring canine disease risk are

now expanding rapidly, arising from analyses of data fromsecond opinion referral centres and pet insurance compan-ies. More robust approaches, such as the use of longitu-dinal cohort studies, are also being introduced. Reportingboth canine genetic and epidemiology research reports ina single journal is appropriate, as both genetic and envir-onmental factors contribute and interact to trigger diseaseprocesses. It is important that both genes and environmentshould not be studied in isolation. Through publishingboth canine genetic and epidemiological research in a sin-gle journal, we hope to bring research communities closer.Domestication of the dog from the wolf some 10–

15,000 years ago, is a recent event in terms of evolution-ary time scale. Sequencing genomes for different caninespecies is underway and is revealing their evolutionaryrelationships. This will lead to important insights intocanine physiology, health and disease, and help facilitateconservation and wildlife management policies.Comparative genetic approaches using studies in one

species to help identify disease related genes in anotherspecies are well established. Comparative maps of the

* Correspondence: bill.ollier@manchester.ac.ukCentre for Integrated Genomic Medical Research, University of Manchester,Manchester M13 9PT, UK

© 2014 Ollier and Kennedy; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of theCreative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0), which permits unrestricted use,distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly credited. The Creative Commons PublicDomain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in thisarticle, unless otherwise stated.

Ollier and Kennedy Canine Genetics and Epidemiology 2014, 1:1http://www.cgejournal.org/content/1/1/1

genomes of a wide range of species exist, and it is pos-sible to cross reference the chromosomal position of adisease causing gene found in one species to its locationin another species. The term “animal model” is oftenused to describe animal based pathology which repre-sents that seen in human diseases; many of these modelsare experimentally induced rather than occurring natur-ally. Furthermore, many experimentally induced animaldisease models represent only partial aspects of theircounterpart human condition. The standard model spe-cies are usually mice or rats. However, the dog genomeis more similar to that of the human than rodents. It isnow recognised that domestic dogs spontaneously de-velop many clinical conditions that are also seen inhumans, and these may have similar if not identicalunderlying pathological processes. Examples include can-cers, autoimmune diseases, allergies, eye diseases, mus-culoskeletal and neurological conditions. Veterinariansinvolved in research benefit from specialist training toclinically describe their canine patients, unlike researchscientists working with rodent animal disease models. Theresearch potential that the dog offers for comparativestudies has started to bring dog owners and breed clubstogether with veterinary and human clinical scientists todevelop collaborations which benefits both human andcanine medicine.The existence of a wide range of dog breeds where

some are particularly predisposed to certain diseasesrepresents great potential for conducting comparativestudies. In many ways they are similar to isolated inbredhuman populations, such as the Amish, which have beencritical for identifying disease causing mutations. Mostdomestic dog breeds are of recent origin having been de-veloped over the last 300 years. Selective breeding ofdogs with particular physical or behavioural attributes,have been fixed by restricting breeding to within definedpedigrees. Across all dog breeds there is now a widerange of gene mutations encoding the extremes of manyphysical and behavioural characteristics; e.g. the sizevariation between Great Dane and Chihuahua. One con-sequence of breed formation has been that undesirableand/or unrecognised disease causing genes have been in-advertently included along with desirable attributes.The potential of the domestic dog for comparative dis-

ease studies formed the basis for a four year EU FrameWork 7 research award called LUPA. This brought to-gether research geneticists, epidemiologists and veterinar-ians across Europe with the sole mission identifying thegenetics of canine diseases that also represent importanthuman conditions. A wide range of diseases were included.Two aspects are seen to be paramount for the scope and

focus of this new Journal. Firstly, that the Journal shouldbe open access, so it can disseminate research and know-ledge to a wide, international readership. Secondly that it

should completely embrace “public engagement with sci-ence”. There are many dog owners and breeders aroundthe world committed to understanding and improving thehealth and welfare of domestic dogs. Further potentialreaders include those who are committed to wildlife andconservation biology. This journal will provide an oppor-tunity to bring scientists, veterinarians, dog owners and aninterested general public closer together.Every article published will have a lay summary and

we will occasionally include lay interpretations of com-plex scientific terminology.

Received: 18 March 2014 Accepted: 18 March 2014Published: 16 April 2014

doi:10.1186/2052-6687-1-1Cite this article as: Ollier and Kennedy: Every dog has its day: a newjournal for canine genetics and epidemiology. Canine Genetics andEpidemiology 2014 1:1.

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