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Gender effects in hearing loss in Dalmatians.
Famula TR, Oberbauer AM, Williams DC.
Department of Animal Science, University of California, Davis, CA 95616, USA. trfamula@ucdavis.edu
Brainstem auditory-evoked-response data were collected from 3101 Dalmatian dogs
from 1984 to 1998 at the Veterinary Medicine Teaching Hospital at the University
of California, Davis. Also collected were data on eye color and the presence or
absence of a color-patch at birth. Our objective was to evaluate the role of
gender in hearing loss, including the possibility that the probability of
suffering unilateral or bilateral deafness was greater if the dam was hearing
impaired than if the sire was hearing impaired. Results of a multiple-trait
threshold-model analysis support the commonly held observation that females were
more likely to be deaf than males. In addition, females were also more likely to
have two blue eyes (a condition associated with an increased prevalence of
deafness). However, gender differences in hearing loss were limited to these
direct observations. There was no detectable difference in the prevalence of
hearing loss between offspring of deaf mothers and the offspring of deaf
fathers. Finally, there was no detectable decrease in the prevalence of hearing
loss over the years covered in the data set - suggesting that Dalmatian breeders
are not yet selecting against hearing problems.
Published in Preventative Veterinary Medicine 2001, Volume 48, p 15-24.