What is it about?
Breeding for selected traits in dogs has resulted in a diverse range of shapes, sizes and behaviours but potential unintended consequences may also occur. Previously we identified metabolic differences between healthy individuals from 9 breeds and found a number of lipids to be particularly discriminatory. Here we used advanced techniques to specifically detect lipids from the same samples and identified distinctive, stable lipid profiles discriminating between breeds despite environmental influences such as diet.
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Why is it important?
The study provides insights into breed-associated metabolic differences, which when understood in more depth, may allow improved understanding of healthcare requirements in individual animals. In addition, the study highlights the importance of recording metadata (for example diet type, gender, age, neuter status, body condition score) to enable their influences on blood lipids to be identified and accounted for.
Perspectives
The study was very complex and challenging, using equipment that was very advanced and requiring a lot of method development. I am very grateful for the tenacity, determination and expertise of the team at Aberystwyth and their willingness to take on the many challenges they faced.
Dr David Allaway
Mars Inc
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Ultra high performance liquid chromatography–high resolution mass spectrometry plasma lipidomics can distinguish between canine breeds despite uncontrolled environmental variability and non-standardized diets, Metabolomics, January 2017, Springer Science + Business Media,
DOI: 10.1007/s11306-016-1152-0.
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