Foal Immunodeficiency Syndrome (FIS)
35,00 €
excl. 19% VAT
→ Nonfunctional immune system causes anemia and early death in foals.
Instructions for ordering:
- Enter the information of the first horse for which you want to order the test
- Add to cart
- Go to cart to check out, or
- Enter the information for a second horse
- For sample collection follow the instructions here.
- You can use this template to send in hair samples.
- Please also send the completed order form together with the samples.
For a breeder or veterinarian discount please contact us before ordering.
Any information you include here is optional, but will be included on the certificate of results (except “Additional Info”).
General Information
- Antibodies that are usually produced after birth cannot be developed by the impaired immune system.
- At the age of 3 – 6 weeks, when the foal stopps suckling, maternal antibodies decrease in the foal’s body and infections occur.
- Anemia usually causes early death or euthanasia of the affected foal.
- Estimated 10% of Fell ponies and 1% of Dales ponies are affected by FIS (data from UK breed societies).
- FIS is an autosomal recessive hereditary disease, meaning that horses with only one copy of the genetic variant (N/fis) are clinically normal carriers while horses with two copies of the genetic variant (fis/fis) are affected.
Symptoms
- Diarrhea
- Cough
- Problems suckling
- Infections
- Anemia
Inheritance and Genotypes
→ FIS is an autosomal recessive hereditary disease, meaning that horses with only one copy of the genetic variant (N/fis) are clinically normal carriers while horses with two copies of the genetic variant (fis/fis) are affected.
Genotype: | The horse is: | Effects: |
N/N | normal. | The horse does not have any copies of the genetic variant causative for FIS and therefore cannot pass it on to any offspring. |
N/fis | a carrier. | The horse is clinically healthy. It has one copy of the genetic variant causitive for FIS, which will be passed on to its offspring with a probability of 50%. |
fis/fis | affected. | The pony is affected and will not live long enough to reproduce. |
Recommendations
- Carriers may be bred to normal animals (N/fis x N/N) without any risk of producing affected offspring. The offspring should also be tested before breeding to determine if they are carriers or normal.
- Breeding two carriers (N/fis x N/fis) is not recommended due to the possibility of 25% of the offspring being affected.
References
Fox-Clipsham, LY., Carter, SD., Goodhead, I., Hall, N., Knottenbelt, DC., May, PD., Ollier, WE., Swinburne, JE.: Identification of a mutation associated with fatal foal immunodeficiency syndrome in the fell and dales pony. PLoS Genet 7:e1002133, 2011. Pubmed reference: 21750681. Doi: 10.1371/journal.pgen.1002133.
Further information is available at Online Mendelian Inheritance in Animals.