Airway responses to methacholine and histamine in basenji greyhounds and other purebred dogs.

To investigate whether airway hyperresponsiveness is a general characteristic of either the basenji or the greyhound ancestry of the basenji-greyhound (BG) dog and to determine whether airway hyperresponsiveness of the BG dogs in specific for methacholine, we compared pulmonary responsiveness to increasing doses of aerosols of histamine and methacholine in 17 BG dogs, 5 unrelated purebred basenjis and 5 unrelated greyhounds. BG dogs were hyperresponsive to both methacholine and histamine compared to basenjis and greyhounds. There was a significant correlation between histamine compared to basenjis and greyhounds. There was a significant correlation between histamine and methacholine responsiveness (r = 0.70, P less than 0.0001) in the dog population. We conclude that airway hyperresponsiveness characteristic of the BG dog is not a general characteristic of the basenji or greyhound breed and occurs to histamine as well as to methacholine.