comme je sais que tu parles anglais je me casse pas à traduire : c pas une maladie nouvelle hein mais maintenant on a un test ce qu'on n'avait pas il y a deux ans !!
Cerebellar Abiotrophy is a neurological disease, most often noted in newborn foals of approximately 3 weeks to 4 months of age. The most notable symptoms are a palsey-like head shaking (called intention tremors), the lack of a normal blink response although vision is correct, and an awkward exaggerated form of action with the forelimbs often similar to a military goose-step or high elevation used to cross over a very low object called hypermetric action. As these affected foals will often run into things or fall down- sometimes causing head injuries, their condition can be mis-diagnosed as injuries from a blow to the head or neck, making the true neurological condition go unnoticed.
Cerebellar Abiotrophy (CA) is being recognized in all bloodlines of the arabian horse. Suspected to be an autosomal recessive defective allele, it can be passed forward through several generations without re-appearing. It is not a lethal gene. It does however make the horse generally unfit for riding or driving. Most affected horses are euthanized before they cause severe damage to themselves or to their handlers because of their inability to control their own balance.
More samples are needed to identify the specific allele or combination of alleles and develop a test for Carrier horses. All information is kept private to protect any of the horses and their owner/breeders respective breeding programs. Cases of actual affected CA have been the requirement in the past, but now they want samples from any related family members as well. It is in this realm where we could really be of help in pushing research on CA forward. If you have had a CA foal in the past, which has already been euthanized but still have what appears to be perfectly normal syblings or otherwise related family members, these too are important for this research.
It is my hope and goal for 2007 that with this concentrated effort of your welcomed participation that the markers for CA will be identified and a test will be developed.
Please help us obtain these goals.
UPDATE: The Swiss have terminated their research on CA and recommend that all ingueries be made to Dr. Cecilia Penedo ,VGL at UC Davis:
http://www.vgl.ucdavis.edu/services/horse.php
