I sent the following email to Dr. Sue Taylor in August of 2009 after I received the EIC Results of several of my dogs. She sent my email on to Katie Minor and their replies follow. I have removed my name and the names of my dogs in deference to the breeders that made it possible for me to become a breeder.




Dr Taylor,

As a Labrador breeder I will be forever grateful for the development of the EIC test. It is so reassuring to know that within two generations my lines can be totally clear of EIC. Thank you.

I ask the following question in an effort to be of help.
Is a more in-depth look being taken at the percentage of Labs that never collapse, but test as Affecteds, that is have 2 copies of the DNM1 gene mutation? If these dogs are of interest, I have several, of various ages, that fit this description.

Five Labs of my breeding are EIC Affected, four have tested as Affecteds and one is Affected by parentage. Although these dogs have bench/show pedigrees, all have been and are presently being field trained, three by professional field trainers. Four have competed/titled in Junior and Senior hunt tests and the fifth is my veterinarian's hunting dog, which includes up land game. All have been vigorously trained and worked in the field.

All are closely related. My foundation bitches, Bitch A (10) & Bitch B (8), both Carriers, are 3/4 sisters. They have the same dam and their sires are ½ brothers.

Below are the EIC Test results and ages of their offspring:
Bitch A’s daughter Bitch C - 7y 6m - Affected,
Bitch C’s daughter Bitch D -19 months - Affected,
Bitch B’s daughter Bitch E - 5y 8m - Affected
Bitch B's son Dog F - 5 yr. 8 m - Affected,
(Offspring E, D and F have the same sire)
Son of Bitch C and Dog F son Dog G -11 months - (not tested) is Affected by parentage

I would like to help in any way possible.
Thank you,

>Hi Breeder
>
>Thank you very much for your email.
>
> Yes, research is being done to see if there are factors that help to
> determine whether or not a given dog with EIC will exhibit symptoms of
> collapse. We know that the level of intensity or excitement with which
> they undertake strenuous activity is a factor but there may be other
> factors as well. Approximately 85% of dogs that are affected will exhibit
> collapse before they are 3 years of age
>- maybe a little higher in field trial dogs and a little lower in show dogs
>(and maybe intermediate in show bred dogs doing field work like yours)
>
> I am sending a copy of this email to Katie Minor at the University of
> Minnesota who is coordinating this phase of the research. I presume the
> testing was done at the University of Minnesota so she can access the
> results and the DNA samples from the tested dogs? If not, she will
> arrange to get further DNA samples from your dogs.
>
>Thanks again for your interest and for your help with this research.
>
>Sue Taylor, DVM

Hello Breeder, You were actually set to be in my next phase of owners to
contact. My plan, at least for now has been to contact owners whose dogs
have been tested at least 6 months ago, and who have dogs that are now
about two years of age or older. I need to give these dogs enough time to
potentially experience a collapse episode after testing before I gather
information on their collapse status or lack there of. I would be happy to
receive information on all of the dogs that you've mentioned below. Please
follow this link to complete surveys for these dogs:

http://www.cvm.umn.edu/vbs/faculty/Mickelson/lab/eic/survey/home.html

Thank you for your interest in assisting with our ongoing research into the
syndrome of EIC.

Katie Minor

I hope this is hopeful and helpful to those of you that are concerned about our Affecteds.
I must report that since I wrote this email, one of our Affecteds by parentage, living in a pet home, has suffered a collapse. The collapse occurred after a 30 minute period of great excitement as she retrieved
a ball being tossed by three children on a warm and very humid day.
However, all of the Affecteds list above have not experienced a collapse and continue to compete
In hunt tests. Dog F earned a senior title this weekend and his son earned two legs toward his senior title.
We are very careful with our Affecteds – they are never out of our sight!

The ;link you gave didn't work for me; I found this one for the survey:
http://www.cvm.umn.edu/vbs/faculty/Mickelson/lab/EIC/retrievereic/survey/home.html

thank you for sharing.

It appears that the word retriever before eic/ was missing. Thanks for posting a link.

When I contacted the U of Minn when the test first came out I was told there would be no further research done. The test was the test and they would not be doing anything to alter it in the future under any circumstances.

Several other breeders were told the same at that time. Maybe they recieved additional grants and donations after the test was made available. Some federal, medical organizations do provide animal research grants also.

If they are doing more research, they should be making that information available to all Labrador Breeders. The parent club could have been contacted.

Yes, the test "IS" the test!

What is being looked at in the second phase is
the other factors that may come into play to protect the Non-collapsing Affecteds. Several thoughts on this
topic have been discussed many times on this Forum.

Thank you for providing the working link.
Sorry, but I didn't realize that the link I used is no longer operational. It has been a year!