Schmutz Sheila M
Department of Animal and Poultry Science, University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, SK S7N 5A8 Canada.
Canine Genet Epidemiol. 2014 May 28;1:6. doi: 10.1186/2052-6687-1-6. eCollection 2014.
During routine diagnostic BAER testing of dogs of various breeds for private owners at the Western College of Veterinary Medicine in Saskatoon, it became evident that some individual dogs developed hearing loss as adults. Although inherited congenital deafness has been widely reported in dogs, this type of deafness had not.
Special clinics were set up to screen working Border Collies at herding competitions. To determine the typical age that geriatric deafness might be expected, retired dogs were also recruited. Five of the 10 Border Collies 12 years of age or older had hearing loss (1 bilaterally deaf and 4 had reduced hearing). The adult onset deafness which exhibited in three families, did not usually occur until 5 years of age, too young to be geriatric deafness. This adult onset deafness fits an autosomal dominant pattern of inheritance. Several of these dogs had been BAER tested at younger ages with no sign of deafness. The deaf dogs were not associated with either gender. A survey was developed which was completed by the dog owners, that indicated that the hearing loss was gradual, not sudden. In addition, some family studies were conducted.
Dogs at 5 years of age were often in the prime of their herding careers and then did not respond appropriately to distant commands. This type of deafness is important to dog owners but is also a potential medical model for some forms of hearing loss in humans. This report also suggests that geriatric hearing loss is common in dogs older than 12 years.
在萨斯卡通市西部兽医学院为私人宠物主对各种犬种进行常规诊断性脑干听觉诱发电位（BAER）测试期间，明显发现一些成年犬出现了听力丧失。虽然遗传性先天性耳聋在犬类中已有广泛报道，但这种类型的耳聋此前尚未见报道。
设立了专门诊所，在放牧比赛中对工作中的边境牧羊犬进行筛查。为了确定可能出现老年聋的典型年龄，还招募了退役犬。10只12岁及以上的边境牧羊犬中有5只出现听力丧失（1只双侧耳聋，4只听力减退）。在三个家族中出现的成年期耳聋，通常直到5岁才发生，这一年龄对于老年聋来说太小。这种成年期耳聋符合常染色体显性遗传模式。其中几只犬在较年轻时进行过BAER测试，未显示耳聋迹象。耳聋犬与性别无关。开展了一项由犬主完成的调查，结果表明听力丧失是渐进性的，而非突发性的。此外，还进行了一些家族研究。
5岁的犬通常正处于放牧生涯的黄金时期，之后便对远处的指令不再做出适当反应。这种类型的耳聋对犬主来说很重要，同时也是人类某些形式听力丧失的潜在医学模型。本报告还表明，12岁以上的犬老年听力丧失很常见。
