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Australian Shepherd

Lifespan
13.7 years
95% CI 12.8 to 14.6 · McMillan 2024, n=224
Most carried variant
MDR1
24% of 2,296 tested · Donner 2023
Behind this page
31 dogs
in the atlas · an early sketch · 2,296 tested for variants
Also carried:Degenerative Myelopathy · 9%Collie Eye Anomaly · 5%

Australian Shepherds have a cited life expectancy of 13.7 years (McMillan 2024 / VetCompass, n=224, 95% CI 12.8 to 14.6). The most carried tested variant is MDR1, in 24% of 2,296 Australian Shepherds tested (Donner 2023), then Degenerative Myelopathy (9%) and Collie Eye Anomaly (5%). 31 dogs stand behind the atlas figures here, so treat this page as an early sketch.

Australian Shepherd
Photo: Trickdog-Fina · CC BY-SA 3.0 · Wikimedia

Also known as Aussie, Australian, Standard Shepherd Dog, and little blue dog.

See in the atlas → From CanVAS
Mendelian-disease genetics

What genetic diseases do Australian Shepherds carry?

From a panel of 250 Mendelian-disease variants screened in 1,054,293 dogs (Donner et al. 2023), Australian Shepherds carry 19 of them at observable frequency. Carrier frequency is not clinical risk. Most recessive variants require two copies for disease expression; many dominant variants show incomplete penetrance. Read this as a population fingerprint of what's in the gene pool, not a per-dog prediction.

MDR1 (Multidrug Resistance 1) Medication Sensitivity
Autosomal dominant
high 24.3%
n = 2,296 dogs · 1 variant tested · OMIA:001402-9615 · omia.org →
ABCB1what this gene does

ABCB1 is a gene that helps control how certain drugs are processed and cleared from a dog's body.

For your dog: If your dog is from a breed that carries this gene variant, ask your vet about medication sensitivities before giving any new drugs.

Chondrodystrophy and Intervertebral Disc Disease Risk (CDDY)
Autosomal dominant
moderate 2.3%
n = 2,290 dogs · 1 variant tested · OMIA:000157-9615 · omia.org →
FGF4what this gene does

FGF4 influences leg length by affecting bone growth, leading to shorter legs in certain breeds.

For your dog: If your dog is from a breed known to carry this gene, it's worth discussing spinal health with your vet, but being a carrier doesn’t guarantee problems.

Dilated Cardiomyopathy risk factor (Discovered in the Doberman Pinscher; PDK4-related)
Autosomal dominant (Incomplete penetrance)
marker disputed 11.5%
n = 2,296 dogs · 2 variants tested · OMIA:000162-9615 · omia.org →
PDK4what this gene does

PDK4 helps regulate how cells use energy, especially in the heart muscle.

For your dog: If your dog is one of the breeds known to carry this gene, it’s worth discussing heart health with your vet, but being a carrier doesn’t mean your dog will develop disease.

Degenerative Myelopathy (DM)
Autosomal recessive (Incomplete penetrance)
low 9.0%
n = 2,296 dogs · 1 variant tested · OMIA:000263-9615 · omia.org →
SOD1what this gene does

SOD1 is a gene that helps protect cells from damage caused by harmful molecules called free radicals.

For your dog: If your dog is a carrier of SOD1 variants, it's worth discussing with your vet, but remember carrier status doesn't mean your dog will get the disease.

Collie Eye Anomaly (CEA)
Autosomal recessive
low 5.0%
n = 2,296 dogs · 1 variant tested · OMIA:000218-9615 · omia.org →
NHEJ1what this gene does

NHEJ1 is a gene involved in repairing breaks in DNA, helping maintain the integrity of genetic information in cells.

For your dog: If your dog belongs to one of the breeds known to carry this gene variant, it's worth discussing testing with your vet to understand any potential eye health risks.

Hyperuricosuria (HUU)
Autosomal recessive
low 3.1%
n = 2,296 dogs · 1 variant tested · OMIA:001033-9615 · omia.org →
SLC2A9what this gene does

SLC2A9 is a gene that helps regulate uric acid levels in a dog's body. It plays a role in how the kidneys handle this substance.

For your dog: If your dog is one of the breeds known to carry this gene variant, it’s worth discussing with your vet to understand any potential urinary health concerns.

Cone-Rod Dystrophy (cord1-PRA/crd4)
Autosomal recessive (Incomplete penetrance)
low 1.6%
n = 2,291 dogs · 1 variant tested · OMIA:001432-9615 · omia.org →
RPGRIP1what this gene does

RPGRIP1 is a gene involved in the function of photoreceptor cells in the eye, which help dogs see in different light conditions.

For your dog: If your dog belongs to a breed known to carry RPGRIP1 mutations, it’s worth discussing with your vet to understand the risks and monitor eye health.

Von Willebrand's Disease, Type 1 (vWD 1)
Autosomal recessive
low 0.59%
n = 2,296 dogs · 1 variant tested · OMIA:001057-9615 · omia.org →
Progressive Rod-Cone Degeneration (prcd-PRA)
Autosomal recessive
low 0.37%
n = 2,293 dogs · 1 variant tested · OMIA:001298-9615 · omia.org →
PRCDwhat this gene does

PRCD is a gene involved in the health of a dog's retina, the part of the eye that detects light and helps with vision.

For your dog: If your dog belongs to a breed known to carry PRCD changes, it's worth discussing eye health and potential genetic testing with your vet.

Canine Multifocal Retinopathy 1 (Discovered in Mastiff-related breeds; CMR1)
Autosomal recessive
low 0.37%
n = 2,296 dogs · 1 variant tested · OMIA:001444-9615 · omia.org →
BEST1what this gene does

BEST1 is a gene that helps maintain the health of the retina, the light-sensitive layer at the back of the eye. It plays a role in keeping the cells in the retina functioning properly.

For your dog: If your dog is from a breed known to carry BEST1 variants, it’s worth discussing retinal health with your vet, especially if you notice any vision changes.

Neuronal Ceroid Lipofuscinosis 8 (Discovered in the Australian Shepherd; NCL8)
Autosomal recessive
low 0.17%
n = 2,296 dogs · 3 variants tested · OMIA:001506-9615 · omia.org →
Cystinuria Type I-B (SLC7A9 p.A217T)
Autosomal recessive (Incomplete penetrance)
marker disputed <0.1%
n = 2,296 dogs · 2 variants tested · OMIA:001880-9615 · omia.org →
SLC7A9what this gene does

SLC7A9 is a gene that helps transport certain amino acids in the kidneys. It plays a role in how the body handles cystine, an amino acid that can form crystals.

For your dog: If your dog is a carrier, it’s worth discussing with your vet to monitor urinary health and catch any issues early.

Cystinuria Type I-A (SLC3A1 p.I192V)
Autosomal recessive
low <0.1%
n = 2,296 dogs · 3 variants tested · OMIA:000256-9615 · omia.org →
SLC3A1what this gene does

SLC3A1 is a gene that helps transport certain amino acids in the kidneys. It plays a key role in preventing the buildup of cystine, which can form stones.

For your dog: If your dog is from a breed known to carry SLC3A1 variants, it’s worth discussing cystinuria risks with your vet, especially if urinary issues arise.

Dilated Cardiomyopathy (Discovered in the Schnauzer; DCM)
Autosomal recessive
low <0.1%
n = 2,296 dogs · 1 variant tested · OMIA:002365-9615 · omia.org →
RBM20what this gene does

RBM20 is a gene that helps control how the heart muscle builds and repairs itself. It plays a key role in keeping the heart's pumping function strong.

For your dog: If you have a dog from these breeds, it’s worth discussing heart health with your vet, especially as your dog ages.

Factor VII Deficiency
Autosomal recessive
low <0.1%
n = 2,296 dogs · 1 variant tested · OMIA:000361-9615 · omia.org →
F7what this gene does

The F7 gene helps produce a protein important for blood clotting, which stops bleeding when dogs get injured.

For your dog: If your dog is from a breed known to carry F7 variants, it's worth mentioning to your vet before any surgery or if you notice unusual bleeding.

Intestinal Cobalamin Malabsorption (Discovered in the Border Collie; CUBN-related)
Autosomal recessive
low <0.1%
n = 2,296 dogs · 3 variants tested · OMIA:001786-9615 · omia.org →
CUBNwhat this gene does

The CUBN gene helps the body absorb vitamin B12 from the intestines, which is essential for energy and nerve function.

For your dog: If your dog’s breed is on the list, it’s worth discussing CUBN-related risks with your vet to keep an eye on their vitamin B12 levels.

Craniomandibular Osteopathy (Discovered in the Cairn, Scottish and West Highland White Terrier)
Autosomal dominant (Incomplete penetrance)
low <0.1%
n = 2,296 dogs · 1 variant tested · OMIA:002244-9615 · omia.org →
SLC37A2what this gene does

SLC37A2 is a gene involved in how cells manage certain sugar molecules, which can affect bone development.

For your dog: If your dog is from a breed known to carry this gene variant, it's worth discussing with your vet, especially if you notice jaw discomfort or eating issues.

Early-Onset Progressive Polyneuropathy (Discovered in the Greyhound)
Autosomal recessive
low <0.1%
n = 2,296 dogs · 2 variants tested · OMIA:002120-9615 · omia.org →
NDRG1what this gene does

NDRG1 is a gene involved in nerve cell function and maintenance, helping keep the nervous system working properly.

For your dog: If your dog is from a breed known to carry NDRG1 variants, it’s worth discussing with your vet, especially if you notice any mobility issues.

Pituitary-Dependent Hyperadrenocorticism (Discovered in Poodles)
Autosomal dominant
low <0.1%
n = 2,296 dogs · 1 variant tested · OMIA:000247-9615 · omia.org →
Source: Donner J et al. 2023. Genetic prevalence and clinical relevance of canine Mendelian disease variants in over one million dogs. PLOS Genetics 19(2):e1010651 · Evidence: Limited (DTC ascertainment, tag-SNP proxy) · Confounding MEDIUM · License CC-BY-4.0 · Phene IDs from OMIA (Sydney School of Veterinary Science, The University of Sydney; DOI 10.25910/2AMR-PV70).
Sample size in this breed: 2,296 dogs from the Donner 2023 cohort.
In plain terms

What these results mean for a Australian Shepherd

MDR1 medication sensitivity

24.3% of Australian Shepherds in the Donner 2023 cohort carried it (n=2,296).

  • MDR1 is a drug sensitivity, not a disease. A dog with the variant lacks a pump that keeps certain drugs out of the brain.
    OMIA 001402-9615

    “Multidrug resistance 1 is caused by a lack of P-glycoprotein drug transporter in the blood-brain barrier, which is characterized by neurotoxicity after administration of certain drugs.” OMIA 001402-9615

  • Heartworm prevention is safe. At the dose on the label, every FDA-approved heartworm preventive sold in the United States is safe even for a dog with two copies of the variant.
    Mealey 2008

    “at the manufacturer's recommended dose, all FDA-approved heartworm preventive products marketed in the United States are safe, even for dogs with the ABCB1 mutant/mutant genotype” Mealey 2008

  • The risk is dose. The same drug family (ivermectin, milbemycin and their relatives) causes toxicity in these dogs at doses other dogs tolerate, and some chemotherapy drugs are handled by the same pump.
    Mealey 2008

    “renders affected animals extremely susceptible to toxicosis induced by substrate drugs, such as the macrocyclic lactones at doses well below those tolerated by dogs with the wild-type ABCB1 gene” Mealey 2008

    “Many drugs used in veterinary medicine are substrates for P-gp, including many chemotherapeutic agents and macrocyclic lactones” Mealey 2008

What to do
Keep heartworm prevention going at the label dose. Tell your veterinarian the dog's MDR1 status before any off-label parasite treatment or chemotherapy.

No test, or a mix
No test yet, or a mix that may have herding ancestry: label-dose heartworm prevention is safe either way. For any higher-dose decision, tell your veterinarian the dog is untested so it can be treated as a possible carrier.

Chondrodystrophy and disc disease risk (CDDY)

2.3% of Australian Shepherds in the Donner 2023 cohort carried it (n=2,290).

  • Two extra copies of a growth gene, FGF4, shape dog legs and spines. The one on chromosome 12 is the one tied to disc disease; the one on chromosome 18 shortens legs.
    OMIA 000157-9615

    “Two FGF4 retrogenes (FGF4L1 on chromosome 18 and FGF4L2 on chromosome 12) have been identified to cause dwarfism across many dog breeds.” OMIA 000157-9615

    “Brown et al. (2017) reported that an FGF4 retrogene insertion in chromosome CFA12” OMIA 000157-9615

  • Carrying it raises risk. It does not say which dog will have a disc problem. In Dachshunds researchers found the test is not a valid risk indicator on its own.
    OMIA 000157-9615

    “the FGF4 retrogene insertion on CFA12 is not a valid risk indicator on its own” OMIA 000157-9615

What to do
Ask your veterinarian what a carrier result changes for your dog. What lowers risk in a carrier is not established in the sources this page draws on.

No test, or a mix
Without a test nobody can say whether a dog carries it. Leg length alone does not tell you: the disc-disease copy and the short-leg copy are different insertions.

Dilated cardiomyopathy marker (PDK4-related, first reported in Dobermans)

Marker disputed

11.5% of Australian Shepherds in the Donner 2023 cohort carried it (n=2,296).

  • This is a marker, not an established cause. The curated record says a test based on it is not a good indicator of heart disease risk even in Dobermans, the breed it was found in.
    OMIA 000162-9615

    “it is evident that any DNA test based on this marker will not be a good indicator of liability to this disorder in Dobermans” OMIA 000162-9615

What to do
A carrier result for this marker is not, on its own, a reason for heart screening. Heart screening is a conversation with your veterinarian about the breed and the dog.

No test, or a mix
What this marker means in breeds other than the Doberman is not established in the sources this page draws on.

Degenerative myelopathy (DM)

9.0% of Australian Shepherds in the Donner 2023 cohort carried it (n=2,296).

  • DM is a loss of function in the spinal cord that begins in adulthood and progresses to paralysis of the back legs. There is no treatment that stops it.
    OMIA 000263-9615

    “This is an adult onset degeneration of the spinal cord that progresses to paraplegia and tetraparesis. There is no successful treatment. A genetic test is available.” OMIA 000263-9615

  • Two copies of the SOD1 variant mean at risk, not affected. Some dogs with two copies never show signs.
    OMIA 000263-9615

    “some homozygous mutant dogs had no signs of degenerative myelopathy, which suggests incomplete penetrance or other causative loci” OMIA 000263-9615

  • One copy makes a dog a carrier. In the study that found the variant, every affected dog tested had two copies.
    OMIA 000263-9615

    “All affected dogs tested were homozygous mutant.” OMIA 000263-9615

What to do
A DNA result is not a diagnosis. Take the result, and any change in how the dog walks, to a veterinarian.

No test, or a mix
Without a test nobody can say how many copies a dog has. A breed's carrier frequency describes the breed, not this dog.

Which Mendelian variants matter most for Australian Shepherds?

The Mendelian-disease table above lists variants screened in 2,296 Australian Shepherds (Donner 2023). Two matter most by carrier frequency and clinical impact.

What should I feed an Australian Shepherd?

Australian Shepherds are working dogs with metabolisms tuned for full-day stockwork. A pet Australian Shepherd eating a maintenance kibble in a suburban yard is being fed for a job they aren’t doing. What matters for food is matching calories to the work the dog actually does.

Joint and spine health starts with growth rate. A large-breed puppy formulation with controlled calcium (0.8 to 1.2% dry matter) and a calcium-to-phosphorus ratio between 1.1:1 and 2:1 is the right starting point (NRC 2006). Australian Shepherds reach adult weight faster than most large breeds, and over-supplementation of calcium during growth is a documented risk factor for developmental orthopaedic disease (NRC 2006). Adult-life weight management is the other half. An overweight Australian Shepherd carrying the CDDY variant faces higher IVDD risk; an overweight dog with the cardiac variant faces hemodynamic stress. The food bowl is where weight control begins.

MDR1 changes drug choices, not diet. The 24.3% MDR1 carrier frequency means roughly one in four Australian Shepherds in the Donner cohort carries the variant. Nothing about feeding changes. Heartworm prevention does not change either: label-dose preventives are safe for carriers (Mealey 2008). What changes is everything above that dose, so tell your veterinarian the dog’s status, or that it is untested, before any off-label parasite treatment or chemotherapy.

All life stages benefit from consistent feeding frequency and portion control. Australian Shepherds are food-motivated and metabolically responsive; free-feeding is the common path to overweight.

What we don’t know

The Australian Shepherd atlas contains only 31 dogs, which is small for the breed’s real-world population. That sample size limits the precision of lifespan estimates and rules out sub-breed analysis. The median lifespan of 13.7 years is consistent with the range cited by the Australian Shepherd Club of America health program (asca.org), but longevity outliers and their genetic correlates are not well-resolved in this cohort.

The CEA and cone-rod dystrophy variants are at low frequency (5.0% and 1.6% carrier frequency, respectively) but represent real disease risk. Published environmental analyses for these conditions in Australian Shepherds specifically are sparse; the breed-club health programs focus on test-before-breeding rather than longitudinal natural-history tracking.

Frequently asked questions about Australian Shepherds

What is the most common genetic disease in Australian Shepherds? Medication sensitivity from the MDR1 variant. 24.3% of Australian Shepherds carry the mutation (Donner 2023, n=2,296). It is not a disease itself but a pharmacogenetic risk, dogs with the variant are sensitive to high doses of ivermectin-family drugs and to some other drugs. Label-dose heartworm preventives are safe for them (Mealey 2008).

What is intervertebral disc disease and does it affect Australian Shepherds? Intervertebral disc disease (IVDD) is acute or chronic spinal-cord compression from disc herniation. Australian Shepherds carrying the CDDY variant (2.3% of the breed, Donner 2023) face elevated IVDD risk, with clinical onset most commonly reported in mid-life. Weight management and avoiding high-impact jumping reduce symptom severity.

How long do Australian Shepherds live? Cited life expectancy is 13.7 years (McMillan 2024 / VetCompass, n=224, 95% CI 12.8 to 14.6). Breed-club estimates from the Australian Shepherd Club of America (asca.org) are consistent with this range. Individual lifespan depends on genetics, health screening, and management.

What parasite prevention is safe for Australian Shepherds? Every FDA-approved heartworm preventive sold in the United States is safe at the label dose, including for the 24.3% of the breed that carries MDR1 (Mealey 2008). The risk is higher doses of ivermectin-family drugs, such as off-label parasite treatments. A DNA test is the fastest way to know your dog’s status, and an untested Australian Shepherd or Aussie mix is best treated as a possible carrier for those higher-dose decisions.

Do Australian Shepherds have vision problems? Two low-frequency variants are linked to vision loss: Collie eye anomaly (5.0% carrier frequency) and cone-rod dystrophy (1.6% carrier frequency). Both are autosomal recessive, so affected dogs are rare. Breeding stock should be tested.

Are Australian Shepherds good with kids? Yes, the breed is well-known for patience and trainability with children. The breed standard and breeding philosophy emphasize temperament. Genetics alone do not determine behavior; early socialization and consistent training matter as much as genetics.

Temperament

What Australian Shepherds tend toward

Tendencies from owner surveys of purebred Australian Shepherds — a leaning across the breed, not a prediction for any one dog. A bar’s strength shows how much of that behavior breed actually explains: for most it’s faint, because the rest is your dog, their training, and the life you give them.

Biddabilitybreed ~18%
biddableindependent
Toy-directed Motor Patternsbreed ~18%
toy-directednot toy-directed
Arousal Levelbreed ~8%
arousedcomposed
Environmental Engagementbreed ~9%
high engagementlow engagement
Agonistic Thresholdbreed ~9%
assertivediffident
Proximity Seekingbreed ~13%
affectionatealoof
Human Sociabilitybreed ~11%
less sociablehighly sociable
Dog Sociabilitybreed ~8%
less sociablehighly sociable
n = 118 dogs · Morrill et al. 2022, Science, Darwin's Ark (CC0)
Owner-reported purebreds; each factor n ≥ 25. "Breed ~%" is the share of this behavior explained by breed.
Names & origins

Other names

The Australian Shepherd is also recorded as Aussie, Australian, Standard Shepherd Dog, and little blue dog.

Identified as Australian Shepherd (VBO:0200095) in the Vertebrate Breed Ontology (Mullen et al. 2025, CC-BY 4.0) · registry IDs FCI 342 · iDog 16 · VeNom 22606.

For researchers Population genetics, disease models and every recorded condition Open the research detail for the Australian Shepherd
What the atlas says about Australian Shepherd

In the atlas, the Australian Shepherd clusters consistently as Australian Shepherd (100% of the 31 dogs here). Genetic diversity is high (mean heterozygosity 0.3612), reflecting either a mixed-breed cluster or breeds with broad genetic backgrounds.

Ranks 94 of 107 on the bottleneck severity scale, in the upper quartile of genetic diversity. Mean heterozygosity is 0.361, notably high, indicates broad genetic background.

Median lifespan is 13.7 years, about 1.9 years longer than a typical dog of 23.85 kg, an unusually positive longevity for this size.

Genetic dimensions · CanVAS atlas

What the atlas genotypes say about Australian Shepherd

Computed from the 14,478 CanVAS dogs in the Atlas, on an imputed genotype backbone: 77,215 directly typed sites per dog, imputed to 9.67 million variants.

The confidence below counts dogs, not reads: it is the size of the sample, and it is separate from how the genotypes were measured.

Dogs in the Atlas
31Founders
20 from Hayward2016, 10 from Spatola, 1 from JenkinsWGS
Genetic diversity
0.36Diverse
Mean heterozygosity across the breed. 14th most diverse of 107 ranked populations.
What does genetic diversity mean?

How varied a breed's gene pool is — the share of gene spots where a typical dog of the breed carries two different versions rather than two identical ones.

How to read it: Higher = more diverse. Among well-sampled breeds it ranges roughly 0.22 (least diverse) to 0.33 (most diverse).

Diversity is a strength, not a verdict on any individual dog. Lower diversity means it's worth paying attention to recessive-risk testing — not that a dog is doomed.

Cluster structure
Splits into two genetic sub-populations
Intra-breed RMS distance: 24.82 · likely working/show-line, regional, or kennel lineage split.
What does within-breed variation mean?

How much individual dogs within the breed differ from each other genetically.

How to read it: Higher = more internal variety among individuals of the breed.

Sensitive to how many dogs of the breed we've sampled.

Related breeds
In the Herding group
Explore the full lineage map →
VBO foundation stock (breeding records) · AKC breed group
Relatedness is documented lineage + kennel family. Genetic-ancestry distance measures diversity, not kinship, so it isn't used here.
How long they live
13.7years (life expectancy)
95% CI 12.8–14.6 · VetCompass, McMillan 2024, n=224. source
What does typical lifespan mean?

The median age dogs of the breed tend to reach.

How to read it: Higher = longer-lived. Compare to longevity-for-size to see whether it's just a size effect.

Drawn from population lifespan records; individual dogs vary widely with care, genetics, and luck.

n = 31 dogs · moderate sample · CanVAS (Brundage 2026) · Sniff Atlas
A gift to human medicine

Australian Shepherds are a natural model for human disease

Because the same genes cause the same conditions across species, the inherited conditions documented in Australian Shepherds help researchers understand, and work toward treating, the human diseases they model. This is the dog advancing human medicine. The breed models the human disease; it does not have it, and this is not a prediction for your dog.

Human equivalents via OMIA → Mondo / OMIM. Model-of, not identity. The named gene is the canine locus, not a claim that a pet has the human disease.
Documented in OMIA

Every condition recorded in the Australian Shepherd

Beyond the testable carriers above, OMIA's literature catalogue records 22 genetic conditions in the Australian Shepherd, 20 of which have a known human equivalent. This is the documented landscape across all Australian Shepherds ever studied, not a prediction for any one dog.

Plus 4 more conditions recorded in the Australian Shepherd in OMIA.

Online Mendelian Inheritance in Animals (OMIA); Nicholas, Tammen & Sydney Informatics Hub, DOI 10.25910/2AMR-PV70
Documented in the breed's literature is not carrier status and not a forecast for an individual dog. Human equivalents are mapped via Mondo/OMIM. Carrier frequencies (above) are the separately-measured testable subset (Donner 2023).
The data behind this page

Where every number on this page came from.

This page draws on three primary data sources. Carrier frequencies for the Mendelian section come from Donner et al. 2023 (CC-BY-4.0). We grade these data at evidence Limited because the cohort is a direct-to-consumer ascertainment, which biases toward owners who chose to test their dogs. The panel also uses tag-SNP proxies for some variants rather than direct causal-variant assays. Limited is a study-design grade, not a quality grade: the Donner cohort is the largest open canine-genotype dataset in existence and we are grateful for it. We rate the confounding MEDIUM.

Population-genetic dimensions (heterozygosity, intra-breed PCA distance, nearest neighbors, trait-locus frequencies) come from CanVAS (Brundage 2026), harmonized through the Sniff Atlas. The exact release date and verification commit are pinned at the bottom of the page so a researcher can trace a number back to a specific snapshot. The disease-gene-variant graph comes from OMIA (Online Mendelian Inheritance in Animals; Nicholas, Tammen, and the Sydney Informatics Hub at the Sydney School of Veterinary Science, The University of Sydney; retrieved April 2026, DOI 10.25910/2AMR-PV70).

What this page does not yet have. Inheritance modes and per-disease penetrance evidence from Donner 2023 are in the structured data for every variant the panel covers. Mondo, OMIM, Ensembl, and HGNC cross-references live on the gene and disease pages this page links to, rather than being repeated here. What is still absent from this breed page is anything not in the cited panel, and each such gap carries its cause where it appears.

How to cite this page. The computed dimensions on this page are derived from the open Sniff Atlas v1.0.1 (Gehring 2026, doi:10.5281/zenodo.20566358, CC-BY 4.0). Full citation formats including BibTeX, RIS, and CITATION.cff at sniff.world/cite.

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References
  1. Donner J, Freyer J, Davison S, Anderson H, Blades M, Honkanen L, et al. (2023). Genetic prevalence and clinical relevance of canine Mendelian disease variants in over one million dogs. PLOS Genetics 19(2):e1010651. doi:10.1371/journal.pgen.1010651
  2. Brundage DM (2026). CanVAS: A Harmonized and Imputed Canine Variant Atlas. bioRxiv. doi:10.64898/2026.04.13.718238
  3. Nicholas, F.W., Tammen, I., & Sydney Informatics Hub. (2026). Online Mendelian Inheritance in Animals (OMIA) [dataset]. The University of Sydney. https://omia.org. doi:10.25910/2AMR-PV70 (retrieved April 2026).
Last updated
Sources: CanVAS (Brundage 2026) · Donner 2023 · OMIA