Heritable syndrome of skeletal defects in a family of Australian shepherd dogs.

A syndrome of multiple defects including cleft palate, polydactyly, and often syndactyly, shortened tibia-fibula, brachygnathism and scoliosis lethal to males is described in a family of Australian shepherd dogs. Female pups lack the cleft palate and survive, but may exhibit the other defects to a lesser degree than do males. Litter data suggest that the trait is inherited as an X-linked lethal gene, but the possibility of a sex-influenced autosomal allele cannot be ruled out. The syndrome may have arisen in conjunction with instability of the merle locus.