Dwarfism

Pituitary dwarfism (also called nanism) is a disease that leads to a dwarf growth of dogs and is caused by degeneration of the pituitary gland with a consequent lack of production of growth hormones. Dwarfism is an autosomal recessive disease, so the disease affects individuals who receive a mutated gene from both parents.

The disease is caused by a deletion of the 7 bp repeat in intron 5 of the LHX3 gene, in one German Shepherd the insertion of the trinucleotide sequence ACA in exon 5 of the same gene was observed.

GenoCan detects both mutations leading to a dwarfism.