HYPP in horses

[Chickerdoodle13]

This is more of a question out of curiosity, but I recently ran across an ad for a mare who is H/H for HYPP. They are asking $5000 for this mare, and she is bred to a stallion at their farm and he is N/N. So in other words, all of this mare's foals to this stallion will be carriers of HYPP, and will have a possibility of being affected by the disease as well. I just don't see how this is responsible breeding. The farm seems to be fairly reputable too and there was very little concern in the responses to the ad about her H/H HYPP status. Is it just me, or am I the only one who feels this way? Why breed an animal that has a very good (well, about 100% in this case) likelihood of passing a genetic condition down to her offspring? Even if an animal was the most gorgeous thing in the world, I don't think I would want to breed him/her because of the homozygous condition.

 

[hollyclyff]

No you are definitely not the only one who feels this way! I think it's very irresponsible.

 

[Chickerdoodle13]

Haha, I guess this wasn't so much of a question as it was an angry observation! The mare is a beautiful horse, but I don't know why anyone would knowingly breed an animal like that. (And in this case, more than once!)

 

[zazouse]

http://www.vgl.ucdavis.edu/services/hypp.php

Mabe this will help ya understand a little better.

 

[NellaBean]

there is no reason to breed any horse that is not N/N these days. Ridiculous.

 

[Rusty Hills Farm]

FYI: It is my understanding that under current AQHA registration rules, any foal born after 2007 that tests H/H may not be registered with AQHA. AQHA is trying to eliminate HYPP from the registration and, given enough time, may actually succeed. Hopefully the other registries are doing the same. Right now AQHA does require the status to be noted right on the registration papers. Any horse that does not come from two N/N parents has to be tested in order for their foals to be registrable and, again, any H/H foals cannot be registered. Now we need responsible breeders AND buyers to do the right thing so that the market for non-N/N horses dries up completely. If people refuse to buy them or to buy untested horses, breeders will stop taking the chance of getting any H/H or N/H foals. They won't be able to afford the risk.

JMO

Rusty

 

[hollyclyff]

I don't think APHA is doing anything about it unfortunately. I bought a paint mare with Impressive way back in her lineage. I didn't realize it at the time since he doesn't appear on her papers. Her registration gives no indication of the status of any of the horses in her pedigree. Thank goodness she is N/N - I had her tested to be sure.

 

[EweSheep]

I remember seeing a sorrell AQHA mare with a promising WEstern Pleasure career was cut short by HYPP and it was pitiful to see her go downhill after so many treatments were in vain. It was a very upsetting time for all of us, which we were all students. At that time, we didn't know about the disease until it came in the picture after so many losses from Impressive descendents. This was in 1985.

She was a granddaughter of Impressive.

 

[patandchickens]

I didn't originally think it was a huge deal til (back in probably the early 90s) I met a QH who was most likely H/H and was *very severely* affected. He would have significant attacks several times daily and was just all bruises and cuts and scrapes everywhere. And seemed fairly miserable. They kept him going as long as possible b/c he was an expensive show horse. Poor thing.

No, it is not responsible breeding, of course.

OTOH it is possible that in the current economy people are more inclined to try to squeeze any last nickel they can out of their existing stock of horses, and try to sell her as a broodmare rather than just retiring her (or sending her to slaughter, sad to say, which of course used to be the fate of a lot of horses like that)

It's stupid IMHO to bar H/H but *not* H/N horses from registration. It's just windowdressing. I know the rationale is to save certain bloodlines but, come on, it does not make that much difference (IMO) compared to what would be the *benefit* of totally eliminating the HYPP problem. Which could be done in really just 1 generation if they WANTED to, since reliable testing exists.

People will continue to buy H/N horses, because they will be cheaper. And breed them too, as long as permitted, because ditto. Also because of some of the bloodlines involved.

Sigh.


Pat

 

[Chickerdoodle13]

So now I have a question, because other than the genetics of the disease, I'm not all familiar with it. Can an H/H horse go through life and never be affected by the disease? N/H horses can still be affected by the disease, but they are typically not as severe as H/H horses? In the ad, they described this horse as never having an HYPP incident, but it seems like that could change under many different conditions, so saying that she has never had a previous incident doesn't really mean much, right?

Very interesting topic!