English Springer Spaniel Club

Lesley Bloomfield and Louise Scott (ESS Breed Clubs Health Co-ordinators) have received the following update from Penny Watson and Nick Bexfield on their work to investigate the cause of Chronic Hepatitis in English Springer Spaniels at Cambridge Veterinary School.

"Studies into the cause of Chronic Hepatitis in the English Springer Spaniel are progressing well. Through collaboration with the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute in Hinxton (near Cambridge), we are using the latest technology to search for a virus in liver tissue of ESS's affected by Hepatitis. We are able to look at all the genetic information (DNA sequences) contained within this liver tissue, and amongst the millions of sequences, identify any that appear to be of viral origin. We are also able to compare all the genetic information in the liver of a healthy dog from that contained in a diseased liver, to increase the chance of finding a virus. These very powerful methods generate huge amounts of data which require very time-consuming, heavy duty computing to analyse, and means that it will take many weeks until we have some preliminary results. Via this website we will provide updated information when available.

We are very grateful for the support we have had from all the ESS breeders and owners. The collection of samples from dogs affected by Hepatitis is still a vital part of the project. We still need more blood and liver samples from both affected and normal control dogs to allow us to progress towards finding a cause of this devastating disease. We would urge owners to discuss our research project with their veterinary surgeons ideally before any liver biopsy is performed so that we can discuss the ideal techniques of taking and storing biopsies with the vets before they do so. Clinical and pedigree information and (ideally) blood samples from dogs already diagnosed with Hepatitis are also very useful to us; please contact either of us for further information if you have an affected dog. (Tel: 01223 337621 Email: nb289@cam.ac.uk or pjw36@cam.ac.uk).

We would also like to remind owners and breeders that we also require blood samples from healthy English Springer Spaniels over the age of 7 years and we are offering a free liver health screen in return for receipt of such samples. Owners of healthy dogs willing to take part should follow the procedures as outlined in further detail on this website.

We are very pleased to announce that major funding has been received from the Wellcome Trust Charitable Trust http://www.wellcome.ac.uk/Funding/Biomedical-science/index.htm to continue our research. The funding will provide salary and research expenses for an additional three years from August 2009. The Wellcome Trust is the largest charity in the UK and an International recognised body that funds high quality research. The recognition to be awarded funding by this organisation can only help our research project to go from strength to strength.

Although the WT funding is more than the previous CIDC funding, there is still a huge amount of work we might ultimately wish to do, and additional voluntary donations are therefore still very much welcomed."

MARCH 2009

APPEAL FOR BLOOD SAMPLES & PEDIGREES FROM CLINICALLY NORMAL DOGS

Nick Bexfield and Penny Watson, at Queen's Veterinary School Hospital,University of Cambridge, are still hearing of new cases of Hepatitis every week and are progressing very well in their research project to find the cause of this disease in English Springer Spaniels. They are now starting to investigate the genetic aspects of the disease to try to ascertain whether there is any inherited basis or tendency. They already have pedigrees from a number of 'affected' dogs, and they still very much want to hear from owners of any other ESS with Hepatitis who have not yet contacted them.

In addition, they are now appealing for pedigrees and blood samples from unaffected ESS that are clinically normal, in order to progress with their genetic investigations. To be classed as 'normal', an ESS needs to be 7 years or older in age and never to have suffered from hepatitis. If your dog fits this category, and you would consider providing a copy of its five-generation pedigree and also allowing some blood to be taken from your dog by your Vet for genetic analysis, we would very much like to hear from you. In return, Penny and Nick will perform a free 'liver' screen on your dog's blood sample and inform you and your Vet of the results. Any costs you incur from your Vet for taking the blood sample will be re-imbursed. If you think you can help, follow this link for full details and instructions.

Your support will be invaluable in helping to discover the cause of this devastating disease.

OCTOBER 2008:

Lesley Bloomfield and Louise Scott (ESS Breed Clubs Health Co-ordinators) have received the following update from Penny Watson and Nick Bexfield on their work investigating the cause of hepatitis in English Springer Spaniels at Cambridge Veterinary School:

"Hepatitis in the ESS is emerging as a usually severe disease seen most often in young to middle-aged female dogs. It is also recognised in males and older animals, but never to date in a dog over 10 years of age. Nick has been working full time on the project since the end of April and is progressing well. We do not know the cause of the disease, but have a hypothesis from the clinical and pathological appearances that it may be caused by a unique virus which has not been recognised before in dogs (and is not in the usual vaccines). It is important that we rule this out first, before considering other potential causes, and Nick has progressed well developing powerful techniques to look for unknown viruses in dog tissues, and is just moving on to work in dog serum and liver tissue. He needs tissue samples from affected dogs (blood and liver biopsies) to do this and has some already, but needs more. He and Penny would be very happy to hear from any owners of affected dogs to discuss how they may be able to help the project.

At the same time, Nick, Penny and co-workers have been starting to analyse how common hepatitis is in dogs and whether ESS really have an increased ‘breed incidence'. It is possible, for example, that increasing awareness of the condition in the breed society has ‘falsely' elevated the numbers of affected dogs. Penny completed a study looking at disease prevalence in routine post mortems of dogs put down for a variety of reasons in veterinary practices in the Glasgow area and found a prevalence of chronic hepatitis of 8.5% in that group of dogs (which is a lot!). There were some statistically significant increased relative risks in certain breeds including ESS. At the same time, Nick and a final year student (now graduated) at Cambridge analysed a large sample of dogs diagnosed with chronic hepatitis by pathology laboratories in the UK and also found an increased risk in ESS, i.e. more ESS were affected than would be expected looking at either Kennel Club registrations or pet insurance company data as an indicator of breed popularity. These studies have not been published yet but are being prepared for publication. However, it must also be stressed that hepatitis was seen in a variety of other breeds and also in cross-breeds in both studies, so although ESS seem to have an increased susceptibility to the disease, they are not by any means alone in suffering from it. It may be that hepatitis has different causes in different breeds or it may be that it has the same cause - these are all questions which have yet to be answered.

Following on from these results, a medicine resident at the veterinary school is now helping Penny and Nick to analyse the pedigrees of affected ESS to see whether affected dogs are related to each other and whether there is any evidence of an inherited disease. It is possible to have an increased breed risk of a disease without a very clear, straightforward inheritance, so it is important to obtain this information before we can give any advice to breeders.

So what do we want currently from the Breed? We have been very impressed indeed so far with the enthusiasm and support we have had from all the ESS breeders and owners we have met. At the moment, we are most interested in hearing about affected dogs and getting clinical and pedigree information and (ideally) blood samples and liver biopsies from these affected dogs. At some time in the future, when we have the results of the pedigree analysis and move on to genetic work, we will need samples from normal dogs - which we currently believe would be any ESS over 7 years of age which has not had hepatitis. However, we will put out a call when we need this. Funding for Nick's study is relatively secure. However, extra funds are always welcome to help gain clinical samples and help with the other studies which are being undertaken in parallel to Nick's, so we are always very pleased to receive funds raised by breeders and friends to help the research. To facilitate collection and proper use of this money, we have set up a ring-fenced fund in the Kennel Club Charitable Trust to be used specifically for research into ESS hepatitis. Please send any money you wish to donate to this research to: Cas Oakes, Charitable Trust Administrator, The Kennel Club Charitable Trust, 1-5 Clarges Street, Piccadilly, London W1J 8AB with a covering letter explaining what the donation is for and we can assure you it will be properly and productively used.

Thank you all for your continuing help. We are as keen as you are to find the cause of this distressing disease as soon as possible and will keep you updated on any developments in news releases given via the Health Co-ordinators and on Breed Club websites".