Epilepsy is a disease that occurs in humans and in many dog breeds. Epilepsy can develop after brain damage (e.g. as a result of an accident), but it can also have genetic causes. In dogs, the genetically determined forms of epilepsy probably play a very important role. In collaboration with the geneticist Prof. Hannes Lohi from the University of Helsinki and with specialized neurologists from the Universities of Bern and Munich, we would like to investigate the genetic causes of hereditary forms of epilepsy in various breeds of dogs. The aim of our research is to develop diagnostic tests which will allow a reduction of epilepsy cases through targeted breeding strategy. For our research we urgently need blood samples from dogs suffering from epilepsy and their relatives (unaffected parents and siblings). If you would like to contribute to our project and can provide a blood sample from your dog, please follow the instructions in our leaflet. If you are sending in a sample of a dog with epilepsy, please also complete the questionnaire and send it in together with the blood sample and a copy of the pedigree.
