Polycystic disease of the kidney in related mink

Polycystic kidneys in young related mink kits were seen on a mink farm in 1983 (4 kits) and 1984 (6 kits). The kits showed retarded growth and locomotor abnormalities leading to death in the 1983 kits at the age of 4 months. The renal cysts involved the collecting tubules; there was vacuolization and focal hyperplasia of the epithelium. Other organs were normal. The data available for the condition in mink are insufficient as yet to explain the mode of inheritance.