Congenital sensorineural deafness in Dogo Argentino dogs: Prevalence and phenotype associations

The Dogo Argentino dog breed is affected by hereditary congenital sensorineural deafness (CSD) associated with white pigmentation, but prevalence data and associations with phenotypes have not been reported.

In a retrospective study, animals were tested by the brainstem auditory evoked response, and phenotype data of sex, iris color, patch presence/absence and parent hearing status were collected. Chi-square analyses were performed to identify associations between deafness and phenotype traits.

BAER results and phenotype data were collected for 811 dogs. Hearing status was 74.23% bilaterally hearing, 20.35% unilaterally deaf and 5.43% bilaterally deaf or an overall prevalence of 25.77%. CSD was not associated with sex, but dogs without a patch had a significantly higher prevalence rate than patched dogs. Blue-eyed dogs had higher prevalence rates than brown-eyed dogs, but because of small sample size the χ² association was not considered valid. Insufficient numbers of dogs with a unilaterally deaf parent were present to assess the effects of parent hearing status.

Approximately one fourth of a US Dogo Argentino population was deaf in one or both ears, but dogs with a patch had a lower prevalence. Dogs with a blue eye were more likely to be deaf, but the association significance could not be reliably assessed.