Research Projects

News Alert!!! For your vet --  Amyloid is a kidney disease that takes the lives of our beloved dogs.  The only way to know for sure if your dog has suffered the effects of amyloid is by taking tissue samples from organs of a dog soon after its death and staining them with Congo Red Stain to be examined by a lab.  This is something that you must specifically ask your vet to do.  There is a charge by your vet for this service, but if you have a dog with a known pedigree, the information gained could benefit all Chinese Shar-Pei.

In recent years there has been some problems with vets understanding the reason for your request to have this done. Dr. Jeff Vidt, as the CSPCA Health Through Education Chairman, has written a letter that you can take to your vet explaining this to them.

News Alert!!! Please consider sending a cheek swab of your Shar-Pei to University of California at Davis to participate in the UC Davis Shar-Pei DNA Project!! Click here to read about the project.

In addition to the research project going on at CSU, the Centennial Club members have also been cross checked to participate in the research project going on at the National Institute of Health. This project is searching for a gene involved with the fever disorder. CSU and NIH are working closely toegether. Hopefully a test can be designed and used to identify both carriers and affected Shar-Pei early in life through these projects. These are exciting times as far as research involving our breed!

In August of 2004, the Centennial Chinese Shar-Pei Club agreed to collaborate with Dr. Anne Avery and Colorado State University on a research project. Colorado State University is conducting a research project to study Shar-Pei fever syndrome. The goals of this project are:   1) to characterize inflammatory system in affected dogs so that we can better understand why some dogs progress to amyloidosis and why some do not and,   2) to determine if various markers of inflammation might be useful in identifying puppies that will develop the disease before their first fever episode. In addition to our studies, a group at the National Institutes of Health is working on indentifying the gene(s) responsible for this disease, work which we hope will lead to a genetic test to identify carriers.   We had our first blood draw in July 2005, when Dr. Avery and her team of assistants came to our summer picnic to draw blood on club member's dogs.   Dr. Avery has developed a base line on a normal dog, and is analysing the results that she is getting on both affected and non-affected dogs. She is currently in need of blood on dogs during a current fever process. If you would like to participate in this program, please contact us and we will give you the information on how to participate.   We greatly appreciate the willingness that Shar-Pei owners have already shown in helping with this study, and hope that we can make a meaningful contribution to bettering the health of this breed.

 

News Flash! An update of FSF Project by Dr. Linda Tintle

 

 

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