Basenji Health

The Basics

Basenji Health Information by the Basenji Club of America.
The Basenji Club of America publishes a very through list of the health issues which confronts the breed. 

Health Concerns by The Basenji Health Endowment
Information on the four of health issues currently being addressed by The Basenji Health Endowment, a non-profit foundation formed to fund the study of these issues.  Deducible donations are always welcomed.

Basenji Health and Safety by Basenjis Companions
Additional information on basenji health issues including individual experiences and knowledgeable recommendations.

Basenji Health by From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
An overview of Health, Mortality , and Morbidity

These sites are well maintained and provide a basic understanding of the health issues occur in basenji breed.

Research is ongoing, it's important that the prospective owner, current owners and breeders take an active role in the study of these health issues.

A Personal View

Compared to some of the other Purebred breeds the basenji is quite healthy with regard to inherited diseases.  One of the most serious diseases is Fanconi Syndrome.  This is a “high output renal disease” in which the kidneys progressively fail to retain nutrients (protein, glucose, bicarbonate and other electrolytes) and let these nutrients spill out into the urine.  This disease can be managed by replacing some of the nutrients that are lost and counteracting the resulting metabolic acidosis with sodium bicarbonate tablets. 

Visit the Basenji Club of America website at www.basenji.org to find out more about the fanconi protocol that was developed by Dr Steve Gonto.

In the summer of 2007 Dr Gary Johnson of the University of Missouri, sponsored by the Basenji Health Endowment (www.basenjihealth.org) announced a genetic “Linked Marker Test for Fanconi Syndrome”.  They have found that Fanconi Syndrome is inherited as a “simple recessive”.  This means that a dog must inherit a fanconi gene from both his mother and his father to develop the disease.

• Affected – has inherited two fanconi genes (one from each parent)
• Carrier  -  has inherited one fanconi gene from one parent and a normal gene from the other.  This dog will not develop the disease, but will pass the gene on to some of his offspring.
• Clear – has inherited a normal gene from each parent.
• Indeterminate - The genetic marker does not follow either a carrier or clear profile.  These dogs should be treated as if they are a carrier, and should only be bred to a clear dog.  

As a basenji breeder, having this test available is such a huge relief.  This is the end of all the guessing and heartaches.  With this test we will be able to eliminate fanconi syndrome from basenjis.

A simple rule of thumb to use is that each litter needs to have at least one “clear” parent for the offspring to not be “affected”.  Remember, a “carrier” will not develop the disease, and we must continue to carefully use carriers and even possibly affected in our breeding programs or risk narrowing the gene pool even further.  In two or three generations, with careful breeding we will eliminate the disease.  

Evaluating Hip Dysplasia

Under Construction