The Fatal Flaw - Part Two

"When we started getting the samples from horses that were born in the last five years, it seem like there are a lot of the cutting horse lines," said Dr. Dannika Bannasch. "That may just be because the cutting horse people are the ones doing the inbreeding."

"I am surprised at how much inbreeding is going on," Bannasch said, referring to cutting-bred horses. "When you look at the horses that were affected, the inbreeding loops are fairly small. There are reasons people are doing that: It brings out lots of good qualities but unfortunately, and this is why we don't recommend inbreeding, it also uncovers negative traits."

There is only one way to stop the progression of HERDA genes: Stop breeding the affected and carrier horses. Judging from the popularity of some of the sires and dams that have produced HERDA-affected horses, purging is not a realistic option. For many breeders, the lucrative payback of stud fees, viable embryos, sellable yearlings and talented prospects are worth the risk.

Empirical evidence is the only tool for determining which horses are carriers and without hard DNA identification, breeders either don't know or don't care. If a carrier is bred to a carrier, the odds are: one bad, one normal and two workable. Breed a carrier to a normal horse and the risk diminishes with two carriers and two normal horses-not a symptom in sight. The outward signs are not visible. But more carriers were just dropped into the shrinking gene pool.

Greatness begets greatness. Eventually, however, Mother Nature names her price.

"If you haven't seen the disease, it's hard to diagnose," said Dr. Ann Rashmir. "Once you've seen one, you're not going to miss it again."

On the other hand, there are many cutters, cow horsemen and reiners, who don't have a lot of extra money to spend on show horses. When their HERDA-affected horse dies, the experience is a bitter sting.

"It had to be the prettiest and best of my 2-year-olds," said one owner. "We couldn't show her and it would be silly to keep her in a stall. You couldn't put her in the pasture for fear that she'd hurt herself again. It was heartbreaking."

Another owner had a similar experience. "I tried everything because I didn't want to accept that something couldn't be done with this filly," she said. "I had to come to grips, as much as it tore my heart out. I've never put a horse down before and that's hard to do when you love one so much."

That owner had a filly that recently succumbed to HERDA. After her gaping wounds were treated for months, the 2-year-old filly finally lost the race with healing. She was by one of the industry's leading sires and out of a high-earning mare.

"It might make a few people mad, but I don't care!" answered another owner when asked if she thought that publishing a story might help inform the public about HERDA.

"It think it's out there," that same owner said about the incidence of HERDA in cutting horses. "It's hard to know the number. People are quiet about it." That owner and her husband, prominent cutting horse owners, recently donated their HERDA-affected filly to MSU.

People witnessed what happened to Impressive when HYPP blindsided the quarter horse industry. Now, there's talk of eliminating all HYPP carriers from the breeding pool. There are many differences between HYPP and HERDA, but the potential to damage a stallion's reputation is the same.

"I was scared, I just wanted to get ill," said one stallion owner about how she took the news that her stallion had produced a HERDA-affected colt. The stallion, belonging to that owner and her husband, has sired a big futurity champion plus several more money earners. He has also thrown eight HERDA-affected colts. The word HERDA carries with it great dread.

"It's very gut wrenching," the owner said. "To do all the work you've done with a stallion, love your horse and to see his babies go out there. Then this comes up, and it could end his career as a stallion. It could end his career."

That particular stallion's owners have donated the stallion's blood samples to research and offers mare owners re-breeds. When specifically asked if their horse has produced HERDA-affected offspring, the couple answers mare owners honestly. They plan to consult with Dr. Rashmir regarding which mares should be avoided in their breeding program.

"People don't understand it," the stallion owner said. "They point fingers toward the stallion at first, until they realize that it takes the mare's side too."

As for mare owners, they're left with the unfortunate result of deadly genetics. One owner noticed that the filly she raised was constantly hurting herself and not healing properly. Like any young horse, the filly spooked, pulled back and literally shaved off the back of her hocks. That was the fourth or fifth time the horse had sustained injury to her lower legs. She was subsequently diagnosed as a HERDA-affected horse and was recently donated to MSU. Now, how about that filly's yearling full brother?

"My husband's been out there pinching his neck," the mare owner said.

Responsibilities: Moral and Legal
Some stallion owners offer re-breeds when a HERDA-affected offspring turns up, other stallion owners figure the disease is like any other risk mare owners take when breeding. If re-breeds were offered for every bad hock, ugly head, crooked foot, small frame and the such, the stallions would never have time to breed new mares. But some stallion owners consider the HERDA defect a little different from the rest.

"We'll try to make it right any way we can," the above-mentioned stallion owner said. "It's not going to cost them anything to re-breed the mare or switch mares. That's what we do to try and protect the mare owner."

Such an approach might be good for maintaining a cooperative reputation, but there are pitfalls. Once a stallion owner offers a re-breed because of a HERDA-affected offspring, he is proving that he knows his stallion is a carrier. And that has lingering legal ramifications.

Bob Garner, a prominent attorney in Texas said, "If the stallion owner has a horse that throws this gene and he exposes it to the public for him to breed, and they pay money for it, failing to disclose that would be fraud-if he (the stallion owner) knew it or should have known it."

If a mare owner seeks to sue for a re-breed or financial damages caused by a HERDA-affected offspring, he is facing a stiff battle. The mare owner must prove that it is a fact that the stallion has the recessive gene and that it is a fact that his offspring can or may have it as well. The DNA test is the only sure method, technically, to prove that the stallion carries the recessive HERDA gene.

But it's a tricky situation because researchers have already determined, according to accepted scientific standards, that HERDA is a simple recessive disease. Those experts have genetic law and previous experience with similar diseases on their side.

"One would have to assume that the sire and dam are carriers if they have produced an affected foal," Dr. Rashmir said. "They are carriers until proven otherwise."

If a stallion owner is made aware that an offspring by his stallion has been diagnosed as HERDA-affected, there may be some liability-DNA test or not.

"That would give one reason to believe that that would be an impairment to that horse's (the stallion's) breeding, whether it's a fact or not," Garner said. "If it's a reasonable basis to believe that it may be a fact, then he (stallion owner) has a duty to disclose that. If he discloses it, then there's no problem. But if he doesn't disclose it, then he hasn't been up front and straight about it. That's what the law abhors."

Finding the egg
Among industry players in the know, gossip, rumors, and half-truths about this disease run rampant. HERDA is often referred to as the "Doc O'Lena disease," which is totally misleading. There have been several HERDA-affected horses that didn't have a drop of Doc O'Lena's blood in their pedigrees.

Dr. Rashmir believes that she and her researchers have pinpointed the one horse that is listed twice on nearly every HERDA-affected pedigree. She said there is one other horse that appears as a common ancestor of a few affected horses, but those cases are rare and usually less severe.

"I know some people don't agree with me, but they're wrong," Dr. Rashmir said, in a quick tone that conveyed her conviction. "I have enough horses now that I can trace it. People don't want to believe it."

Researchers are hesitant to name the carriers and identify risky crosses. There are issues of liability and most owners who donate HERDA-affected horses are promised confidentiality. Drs. Rashmir is willing to review papers for mare or stallion owners and ascertain the probable HERDA risk level for a particular cross. There is a nominal fee for the service and all proceeds benefit the HERDA research program at MSU.

"The mare owners pay so much money for those stud fees," Dr. Rashmir said. "This could eliminate the heartache for the owners and the breeders alike."

For concerned mare owners who are concerned about HERDA, the experts suggested taking a proactive approach to breeding.

"Until we have a blood test that can establish if a horse is a carrier or not, the best you can do is ask if their horse has thrown any of these, to the best of their knowledge," White said. "Obviously you're relying on the honesty of the other person with the understanding that you don't know either."

Mare owners might be willing to ask for assurances from the stallion owner and they may send papers in for analysis, but they're anxious for the DNA test.

"It would be nice to know what the chances are," said an owner who recently donated an affected colt to MSU. "We're more careful, I can tell you that. Stud fees aren't cheap."

In the meantime, researchers are working full time to determine the inheritability and genetic code for HERDA. The geneticists at UCD believe a DNA test will be available within three years. Right now, according to Dr. White, the researchers are looking for differences in the genes of affected horses versus healthy horses. Once that is accomplished, the researchers will "cone" down to find the actual mutated gene.

Is locating that gene like finding an Easter egg in a park, or looking for one in the state of Texas?

"I would say, maybe finding an Easter egg in a couple of parks, right now," Dr. White answered. "I have a great deal of confidence in the people working on this."

Though there are several versions of the same sort of genetic disease already identified in humans, that research does not help the equine cause.

"The disease in humans is different," Dr. White said. "Just because it's on one chromosome in one species does not mean it's going to be on the same chromosome in another species."

Dr. Rashmir and her team of researchers at MSU are leading the reproduction side of the research. Their goal is to prove that HERDA is a simple recessive disease, an objective hopefully accomplished by breeding affected stallions to affected mares. Right now, seven such mares are in foal.

"That means that 100 percent of the time we should get an affected foal," Dr. Poole explained. "If we can reproduce that eight times, then we know it's a recessive condition."

Eight seems to be the magic number, the precise amount needed to confirm that HERDA is indeed a simple recessive genetic disorder. The results from the seven MSU mares will be combined to the one affected colt already produced at UCD by two affected parents.

Though it might seem a bit sad to create horses that are doomed, the MSU researchers insist that their research is well intentioned.

"We're not just propagating and breeding these horses to do cruel things to them," Dr. Poole said. "We're trying to prove this is a recessive condition."

The MSU researchers are also conducting biochemical tests on skin analysis of affected horses and growing fibroblasts, which is cultured connective tissue. Examining the fibroblasts enables the doctors to determine the precise nature of the damaged collagen cells and how they compare to those found in normal horses.

Until DNA testing is able to identify the flawed gene it is the responsibility of all mare and stallion owners to learn about HERDA-affected horses and understand the consequences of breeding affected or carrier horses. Be on the lookout for damaged animals, before they're sold or saddled. Examine the skin along the top line and over the hips. Watch for wounds that do not heal normally.

"This horse was our dream," Noel Nelson said about her colt. "We bought the very best we could afford, hoping the colt was going to be the horse my husband dreamed about. It's the heartbreak of knowing it's irreplaceable and the dream is gone now. That's what is really hard."

With an eye toward the future, the Nelsons saved money to finance their colt's cutting training. Last month, the couple donated that nest egg to the MSU Hyperelastosis Research Program. The funds will be used to care for the broodmare band.

"That money was already earmarked for that baby and now he's gone," Nelson said. "Besides, without people like Ann Rashmir and the ones willing to do the research, where are we?"

Read Part I.