Exocrine pancreatic insufficiency in the Eurasian dog breed--inheritance and exclusion of two candidate genes.

Exocrine pancreatic insufficiency is considered an inherited disease in several dog breeds. Affected dogs show polyphagia, weight loss and voluminous faeces of light colour due to the lack of pancreatic enzymes. In the study described herein, we performed a segregation analysis using the singles method for three families of the Eurasian dog breed. Our data were consistent with an autosomal recessive mode of inheritance. In addition, we performed a linkage analysis in these families using four microsatellite markers on CFA3 and two microsatellites on CFA23. Based on our results, we excluded the canine orthologs of the human cholecystokinin (CCK) and the cholecystokinin A receptor (CCKAR) genes as candidates for exocrine pancreatic insufficiency.