Paint Horses - Pictures

Paint Horses - Lethal White Syndrome

The history of this disease is very long. Breeders had to euthanize their foals and suffered considerable losses. Yet, the numbers of euthanized foals increased with the growing numbers of Paint Horse breedings. The mysterious disorder could not be coped with without a clear-cut idea of its origins. Thus, the APHA has employed a number of scientists to investigate the problem and determine the cause of Lethal White Syndrome.

Prior to this search work, independent scientists attempted to find out what was wrong with Paint horses. Dr. Ann Bowling has accomplished the first step on the way to managing Lethal White Syndrome. She concluded that the incidence of lethal foals was higher in overo-to-overo breedings. This made her think that overo genes were dominant and led to the disease. According to Dr. Ann Bowling, breedings of two Overos will lead to 25% of lethal foals.

Other scientists working for the APHA confirmed her suppositions. They determined that lethal foals would be the result of overo-to-overo or overo-to-tovero crossings. The fact that other crossings also produce diseased Paint horses can have a logical explanation. It may be that Quarter horses, Thoroughbreds, and other types are mistakenly considered such. As a matter of fact, they carry the lethal overo gene and, therefore, are true Overos.

Inability to do amniocentesis does not allow breeders to know whether the baby is affected. The presence of the gene and its drastic effects will appear after the baby is born. However, the development of new technologies will probably help breeders of Paint horses solve this problem and lessen the rate of Lethal White Syndrome.

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