#which of course means that showlines would start needing to test for sdca

[wyrddogs]

Gastric carcinoma is a type of cancer with a strong breed predisposition in the Tervueren and Groenendael long-haired varieties of the Belgian Shepherd dog. We conducted a study of the incidence of gastric carcinoma in Tervueren and Groenendael dogs that were born in the Netherlands between 2000 and 2010.

We found that on average during this period 3.8% of long-haired Belgian Shepherds develop gastric carcinoma during their lifetime. For the Tervueren variety the percentage of reported dogs that developed gastric carcinoma during their lifetime was 4.7% and for the Groenendael 2.1%. No sex predilection was demonstrated. The median age at death from gastric carcinoma in these dogs was 9.0 years.

The heritability was calculated to be 0.53, indicating a strong hereditary component to development of the disease. The odds of developing gastric carcinoma in offspring are higher if at least one parent is affected compared to if parents are not known to be affected. Effective selection against this disease in this dog population is challenging, as dogs are often diagnosed with this disease after they have been used for breeding.