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Updated: May 7, 2026

Inducement and Evaluation of a Murine Model of Experimental Myopia
Published on: January 22, 2019
Heritability of lenticular myopia in English Springer spaniels
Melissa A Kubai1, Amber L Labelle, Ralph E Hamor
1Department of Veterinary Clinical Medicine, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, Illinois.
Purpose:
We determined whether naturally-occurring lenticular myopia in English Springer spaniels (ESS) has a genetic component.
Methods:
Streak retinoscopy was performed on 226 related ESS 30 minutes after the onset of pharmacologic mydriasis and cycloplegia. A pedigree was constructed to determine relationships between affected offspring and parents. Estimation of heritability was done in a Bayesian analysis (facilitated by the MCMCglmm package of R) of refractive error in a model, including terms for sex and coat color. Myopia was defined as ≤-0.5 diopters (D) spherical equivalent.
Results:
The median refractive error for ESS was 0.25 D (range, -3.5 to +4.5 D). Median age was 0.2 years (range, 0.1-15 years). The prevalence of myopia in related ESS was 19% (42/226). The ESS had a strong correlation (r = 0.95) for refractive error between the two eyes. Moderate heritability was present for refractive error with a mean value of 0.29 (95% highest probability density, 0.07-0.50).
Conclusions:
The distribution of refractive error, and subsequently lenticular myopia, has a moderate genetic component in ESS. Further investigation of genes responsible for regulation of the development of refractive ocular components in canines is warranted.
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