Celebrating the Breakthroughs Shaping the Future of Canine Health. Meet the 2025 Canine Health Discovery Award Finalists.

01874-A: Identifying the Genes That Confer Risk for Development of Cataracts

The Bichon Frise is a very popular breed, as these dogs are small, friendly, and hypo-allergenic. Bichon Frise have an increased risk of primary cataracts, which occurs bilaterally in adulthood. Since the onset is often after sexual maturity, some dogs initially used for breeding later develop cataracts. In an initial CHF-funded study, Dr. Wallace collected […]

0002230: Continued DNA Studies in Cataracts in the Bichon Frise

Cataracts affect more breeds of dog than any other ophthalmic disease. Cataracts are first reported in the Bichon Frise breed in 1996. During this two-year study supported by the AKC Canine Health Foundation, we examined nearly 300 Bichon Frises. These dogs were normal, carrier or cataractous animals and about 60 percent provided blood samples for […]

03143: Causative Role of Xenobiotic Exposures in Canine Gallbladder Mucocele Formation

Mucocele formation is the most common gallbladder disease to afflict dogs. Despite the best surgical care, 17% will not survive. Retrospective studies alone report numbers of affected dogs in the thousands and over 80 publications have now addressed this specific disease. We don’t know what causes mucocele formation and have no way to predict, prevent, […]

02111-A: Evaluating the Contribution of Fungal Infection to the Pathogenesis of Atopic Dermatitis: Putting Evidence under the Use of Antifungal Medication

This study utilized next-generation sequencing to describe the natural fungal microbiome (mycobiome) of canine skin and to identify changes in the mycobiome when allergic skin disease is present. Superficial skin swabs from ten dogs with healthy skin and eight dogs with allergic skin disease were collected from haired and non-haired sites, 10 sites for healthy […]

0001607: Hereditary and DNA Studies in Cataracts in the Bichon Frise

This study found that male and female Bichon Frises are equally affected by cataracts, and that affected dogs come from normal parents, strengthening the hypothesis that cataracts are an autosomal recessive trait in the breed. Researchers studied about 1200 dogs to characterize the cataracts found in the breed (the characteristics of inherited cataracts are distinct […]

02637-A: Reducing Misdiagnosis of Immune-Mediated Hemolytic Anemia

Immune-mediated hemolytic anemia (IMHA) is a common life-threatening disease requiring intensive and expensive therapy. Veterinarians often diagnose IMHA using a saline agglutination test. This test aims to distinguish red cell aggregates induced by antibodies from non-immune-mediated red cell interactions. However, this test can produce up to 20% false positives, thus requiring an improved test. One […]

02143-A: Development of a Novel Treatment for Intervertebral Disc Disease

Grant Status: Closed Grant Amount: $11,903 Gordon S. Mitchell; University of Wisconsin, Madison August 1, 2014 – January 31, 2016 Sponsor(s): Clumber Spaniel Health Foundation Breed(s): Dachshund Research Program Area: Neurology Donate to Support this Research Program Area Project Summary Subject recruitment was initiated upon receiving funding. Potential study subjects were identified through the electronic […]