Tufts researchers may soon have the answer to the age-old question of why dogs chase their tails.
Dr. Nicholas Dodman and Dr. Alice Moon-Fanelli, both of the Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine, have been collecting data and DNA samples for years, and are now on the verge of discovering the genetic key to compulsive disorders in dogs.
To do this, they will collaborate with researchers from other universities and employ single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) chip technology that was developed at Harvard and MIT's Broad Institute.
This technology makes DNA easier to analyze, because it lets researchers study multiple genes at the same time.
"It looks at the whole DNA sequence in that dog, and there's sort of a mini-map," said Dodman, the director of Cummings' animal behavior clinic.
They will then compare DNA sequences and look for areas where dogs affected by compulsive disorders differ from those that aren't.
The Tufts researchers are primarily looking at flank sucking and blanket sucking in Doberman pinchers and compulsive tail chasing in bull terriers, but their work also extends to abnormal eating behavior in Siamese and Burmese cats and cribbing in horses.
According to Moon-Fanelli, a behavioral geneticist, isolating a gene linked to Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) in dogs will have "a major impact on veterinary medicine."
Specifically, it will help veterinarians devise ways to supplement defective proteins and administer possible "gene therapy," among other treatments.
It will also pave the way for a test that breeders can use to reduce "the frequency of those defective alleles in the breeding population," Moon-Fanelli said.
At the beginning of the project, Moon-Fanelli set up surveys and obtained samples through breed clubs and pet owners. They included questions about the frequency, duration and age of onset of compulsive disorders. She also collected data on lineage to understand how compulsive disorders run through family lines in animals. Now the DNA screening process will begin.
When their research is completed, the researchers hope that it can have an impact on the study of aggression and Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) in humans.
"If our wildest wishes came true, we would not only find the gene that caused OCD in animals, but we would also have the same gene in humans," Dodman said.
