20 Breed Notes – May 2021

By now all members should have received their Spring issue of Walkee Talkees, which was sent out almost 2 weeks ago. If you haven’t got your copy, please get in touch with news editor Andy Fitches.

I know that quite a few of you have been wondering (& asking!) when the NoEKC’s schedule for its Ch show (which is to be held in July along with Leeds Ch how) is going to be available. The long & short of it that we don’t know, but Leeds Ch Show has again asserted that their 2021 show is going ahead as planned, and have added that their schedule will be available ‘later this month’. So hopefully ours will also be in the near future as we are waiting on Leeds to publish their schedule so that we can finalise the details of ours.

When our schedule does appear, it will be on-line entries only via Cavalier Impressions and through necessity, there will be a shorter time to make your entries – so watch this space!

Due to restrictions which may or may not be around, no trophies will be handed out at the show and the Trophy Stewards from both breed clubs have requested that all cups and trophies be returned at their next show – that’s Leeds for the NoEKC and Bath for the Keeshond Club.

Finally some good news from the newly opened Kennel Club Genetics Centre (KCGC) to say that they are settling into the Department of Veterinary Medicine at the University of Cambridge and the team, led by Dr Cathryn Mellersh, now has a full complement of 9 members, all of whom have come from the Animal Health Trust

The past few weeks have been spent sorting out their new space, unpacking samples, downloading data and finding their way around. As a result of the pandemic they are still largely working from home which has meant the moving in process has taken a bit longer than it would done under normal circumstances, but are more or less ‘back to business’ now.

They now have a brand new, recently launched website at www.canine-genetics.org.uk. where they list their current research areas as : Inherited Eye Diseases – such as Glaucoma, Progressive Retinal Atrophy (PRA), Primary Lens Luxation (PLL) etc. Neurological Disorders – such as Idiopathic Epilepsy & Paroxysmal Dyskinesia. Congenital hepatic fibrosis in Skye Terriers and last but not least – Primary hyperparathyroidism in Keeshonds.

This is the news that we have all been waiting for and hopefully the linkage test for PHPT will be made available just a little later than originally planned!

Anji Marfleet