Windmill Farms 15 Year Breed Preservation Initiative

Undertaking a breed preservation program involves navigating a complex web of scientific, ethical, daily care and logistical challenges. Here are some of the key complexities we considered:

Maintaining Genetic Diversity:

Preventing Inbreeding: Intentional or happenstance isolated populations are prone to inbreeding, which can lead to reduced fitness and increased susceptibility to genetic disorders. Managing genetic diversity in the program is paramount to avoiding the negative consequences of inbreeding depression and testing the genetic diversity gains.
Balancing Type and Diversity: As a golden retriever breeder, select for specific breed characteristics (traits & type), avoid inadvertent narrowing of the gene pool and making the field population more vulnerable. Review options to test subdivided field lines for rare genetic alleles for preservation.
Cryptic Variation: Favorable genetic traits might exist in less productive animals, highlighting the importance of conserving genetic diversity beyond immediate selection goals.

Scientific and Technical Challenges:

Genetic Monitoring: Effective preservation requires understanding how gene frequencies change over time and monitoring genetic diversity within the population.
Breeding Programs: Design a breeding program that minimizes inbreeding and maximizes genetic diversity. By introducing new individuals or using assisted reproductive technologies.
Understanding Genetic Adaptation: Study research about environmental stresses, fertility, nutrition, genetic drift and deleterious genes.

3. Logistical and Financial Constraints:

Cost: Running an ethical breeding program, including health testing, facility maintenance, and ongoing care, is expensive.
Finding Suitable Breeding Stock: Identifying genetically diverse individuals can be challenging, especially with logistics and bias.
Cryopreservation: Building and maintaining cryo-collections of germ plasm (like frozen semen) requires specialized facilities and expertise.

4. Ethical Considerations:

Animal Welfare: Breeding decisions should prioritize the health and welfare of our goldens, avoiding practices that cause unnecessary stress or harm.
Balancing Aesthetics and Functionality: Avoid selecting for extreme physical traits that compromise an animal's well-being.
Transparency and Education: Open communication with buyers and like breeders about breeding practices and genetic health is essential.
Lifelong Commitment: An ethical responsibility to ensure the lifelong care of the golden we produce, including planning for retirement.

The Target

Breed preservation steps involve a multifaceted approach focusing on maintaining genetic diversity and health within the breed. Key strategies include understanding and monitoring coefficient of inbreeding (COI), genetic diversity testing of offspring, avoiding incestuous pairings, and assessing gene pool quality. Other important steps include using pedigree analysis, conserving sire and dam-line diversity, and utilize outcross pairings, also known as outbreeding, referring to the breeding of individuals within the same breed that are not closely related, typically with no common ancestors for several generations.

Practicing assortative mating, avoiding back to back repeat breedings, ensuring sibling contribution, monitoring fitness indicators, and attempting founder balancing.

Our Process

Breed preservation in our field goldens involves carefully managing our breeding practices to maintain their unique original purebred characteristics, health, and genetic diversity. This includes selecting goldens with desirable traits, managing breeding pairs, and expanding populations to avoid inbreeding and maintain genetic diversity. Preservation also involves monitoring for and addressing inherent, breed specific genetic health issues.

Cancer, heart, eyes, skin, hips & elbows
Longevity HER4 (also known as ERBB4)
Founder trait retention
Temperament retention

Breed Preservation Initiative - Strategic Plan

Strategic planning for golden retriever breed preservation focused on maintaining the health, genetic diversity, and unique characteristics of a our goldens through planned breeding practices.

Pedigree Analysis: Examining a dog's lineage to understand its genetic background and identify potential health risks.
Balanced Traits: Strive for a balance of traits within the breed, rather than focusing solely on one or two specific characteristics. Observation in the field.
Genetic Diversity: Assessing the level of genetic variation within the breed and identifying strategies to maintain or increase it, such as outcross breeding.
Coefficient of Inbreeding (COI): Monitoring the COI to minimize the negative effects of inbreeding.
Health Testing: Implementing screening programs for known genetic conditions within the breed.
Genetic Diversity Testing : VGL testing for IR (Inter Relatedness) , Haplotypes DLA I & DLAII and genetic diversity. Pay special attention to haplotypes for autoimmune.
Preventative Measures: Developing and implementing breeding strategies to reduce the incidence of inherited diseases.
Collaboration: Working with other breeders, researchers, and veterinarians to help ensure the long-term health and viability of the breed.
Education: Study the science of bred preservation including, white papers, research, genetics and published reports.
Adaptive Management: Regularly evaluating and adjusting strategies based on new information and changing circumstances.
Learning from Nature: Observing how wild populations maintain genetic diversity and using those principles in our breeding program.
Repeated outcrosses with backcrossing: The scenario of regular outcrossing generally reduces the rate of inbreeding. One key to success for outcrossing strategies is the effective population size and origins.

Breed Preservation Initiative - Three Phase Outline

Considerations

Attrition estimated at 18-25% due to health, lack of traits, temperaments and other essential factors.
Scope and breadth with financial obligations
Veterinary assistance, set up health program, move all possible health care in house.
Nutrition and vaccinations - Pack health - Parasitic management
Environment, socialization, training, mental stimulus and daily exercise
Biohazards, grounds control
Focus on various aspects of canine behavior, health and cognition.

Years 1 - 5: Set-up and Acquisition

2019 - Our first phase included finding suitable location, a building and goldens. I first imported frozen (Riley) from the UK which produced Ivy. A very successful cross which helped me understand some of the early dynamics and logistics.

Full time dedication to the project.
Take a course in successful breed preservations methods
County licensing permits, building and property completion
Testing grounds - 800+ acres with river access
Population targeted between 12-20 goldens
Study pedigrees look for longevity and other key factors
Import goldens from other countries
Start collecting frozen semen

Years 6 - 10: Mixing Multiple Genetics

This is where the costs really started to mount. Food, veterinary care and health testing along with training each golden. In this phase we begin seeing what the crosses produced genetically and in the field. We start to hone in on certain characteristics.

Experienced health attrition - Costliest of them all, time. Up to 2 years per - Multiple goldens didn't make the set standards
Observed behavior in the field
Fully utilize the genetic tests for IR, Haplotypes and Diversity
Built large puppy play pens
Veterinary costs for TCI and shipped semen
Continuing education
Collaboration with other breeders
Imported goldens from the UK
Collected more frozen semen US, CAN & UK
Keep, train and observe our first 50:50 puppies, run in HT & hunt.
Found and purchased our first golden without a single popular sire in the first 8-10 generations.

Years 11-15 +: Testing, Training with Final Genetic Analysis

We plan to fully mix the genetics of our entire pack in an effort to produce the optimal field golden. This will be done using multiple genetic lines.

Test performance. Involve the pups from 2nd & 3rd generation mixes into HT and performance venues.
Fully utilize the crosses from every golden in the program, use the frozen semen and integrate the popular sire-less pedigree.
Really focus on all the aspects of the founder genetics from temperament, conformation and field traits.
Continue to genetically test a pup from every litter. Compare genetics from the beginning. Document rare alleles and look for increases in breed vitality.