Heart disease in dogs: the importance of screening programs

Screening programs that aim to reduce the prevalence of specific heart diseases in specific breeds rely primarily onearly identification of disease phenotypes. This makes it possible to prevent the inclusion of dogs with heart disease and/or remove them from the breeding pool. Management of heart disease, a complex challenge One challenge in addressing heart disease in dogs is their complex inheritance patterns, which can vary among different breeds. Many heart diseases also have variable penetrance, meaning that the severity of the disease in pups may not be reliably predicted based on the severity of the parents’ disease. However, w...