Belgian Malinois
The most carried tested variant is Spongy Degeneration with Cerebellar Ataxia, in 4.4% of 1,186 Belgian Malinoiss tested (Donner 2023), then Degenerative Myelopathy (4.2%) and Spinocerebellar Ataxia with Myokymia and/or Seizures (2.1%). Only 12 dogs stand behind the atlas figures here, so little is known yet.
Also known as (Chien de Berger Belge), Malinois, Mechelaar, and Mechelse Herder.
What genetic diseases do Belgian Malinoiss carry?
From a panel of 250 Mendelian-disease variants screened in 1,054,293 dogs (Donner et al. 2023), Belgian Malinoiss carry 12 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.
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.
IGFBP5what this gene does
IGFBP5 is a gene that helps regulate growth factors involved in tissue development and repair.
For your dog: If you have a sighthound, it’s worth mentioning IGFBP5-related risks to your vet, but being a carrier doesn’t mean your dog will develop the syndrome.
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.
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.
ANO6what this gene does
ANO6 is a gene that helps regulate how blood cells expose certain signals on their surface, which is important for normal blood clotting.
For your dog: If your dog is from a breed known to carry ANO6 mutations, it’s worth discussing with your vet before any procedures to ensure bleeding risks are managed.
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.
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.
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.
What these results mean for a Belgian Malinois
4.2% of Belgian Malinoiss in the Donner 2023 cohort carried it (n=1,186).
- 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.
Other names
The Belgian Malinois is also recorded as (Chien de Berger Belge), Malinois, Mechelaar, Mechelse Herder, Mechelse Scheper, and Pastor Belga Malinois.
Identified as Belgian Malinois (VBO:0200147) in the Vertebrate Breed Ontology (Mullen et al. 2025, CC-BY 4.0) · registry IDs FCI 15 · iDog 29 · VeNom 14764.
For researchers Population genetics, disease models and every recorded condition Open the research detail for the Belgian Malinois
In the atlas, the Belgian Malinois clusters consistently as Belgian Malinois (100% of the 12 dogs here). Genetic diversity is high (mean heterozygosity 0.3289), reflecting either a mixed-breed cluster or breeds with broad genetic backgrounds.
Mean heterozygosity is 0.329, notably high, indicates broad genetic background. Low breed predictability score (0.20), individual dogs of this breed vary widely in genetics, suggesting active substructure or sub-population diversity. Only 12 dogs of this breed in the atlas, modestly sampled.
What the atlas genotypes say about Belgian Malinois
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.
Not enough dogs in the atlas yet (n=12) for a reliable diversity figure. It fills in as more are added.
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.
Not enough dogs in the atlas yet (n=12) to resolve cluster structure. It fills in as more are added.
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.
Belgian Malinoiss are a natural model for human disease
Because the same genes cause the same conditions across species, the inherited conditions documented in Belgian Malinoiss 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.
- amyotrophic lateral sclerosis type 1, modeled by the breed's Degenerative myelopathy via SOD1, the same underlying biology.
- hemophilia A, modeled by the breed's Haemophilia A via F8, the same underlying biology.
- EAST syndrome, modeled by the breed's Ataxia, cerebellar, KCNJ10-related , the same underlying biology.
- agenesis of the corpus callosum with peripheral neuropathy, modeled by the breed's Ataxia, spinocerebellar, SLC12A6-related , the same underlying biology.
- Griscelli syndrome type 3, modeled by the breed's Coat colour, dilution, MLPH-related , the same underlying biology.
- persistent Mullerian duct syndrome, modeled by the breed's Persistent Mullerian duct syndrome, generic , the same underlying biology.
Every condition recorded in the Belgian Malinois
Beyond the testable carriers above, OMIA's literature catalogue records 8 genetic conditions in the Belgian Malinois, 7 of which have a known human equivalent. This is the documented landscape across all Belgian Malinoiss ever studied, not a prediction for any one dog.
- Degenerative myelopathy Autosomal recessiveHuman equivalent: amyotrophic lateral sclerosis type 1
- Haemophilia A X-linked recessiveHuman equivalent: hemophilia A
- Ataxia, cerebellar, KCNJ10-related Autosomal recessiveHuman equivalent: EAST syndrome
- Ataxia, spinocerebellar, SLC12A6-related Autosomal recessiveHuman equivalent: agenesis of the corpus callosum with peripheral neuropathy
- Coat colour, dilution, MLPH-related Autosomal recessiveHuman equivalent: Griscelli syndrome type 3
- Human equivalent: persistent Mullerian duct syndrome
- Polydactyly Autosomal dominantHuman equivalent: OMIM:174500
- Behaviour Multifactorial
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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- 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
- Brundage DM (2026). CanVAS: A Harmonized and Imputed Canine Variant Atlas. bioRxiv. doi:10.64898/2026.04.13.718238
- 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).