Brainstem auditory-evoked-response data were collected from 3101 Dalmatian
dogs from 1984 to 1998 at the Veterinary Medicine Teaching Hospital at the
University of California, Davis. Also collected were data on eye color and
the presence or absence of a color-patch at birth. Our objective was to eva
luate the role of gender in hearing loss, including the possibility that th
e probability of suffering unilateral or bilateral deafness was greater if
the dam was hearing impaired than if the sire was hearing impaired.
Results of a multiple-trait threshold-model analysis support the commonly h
eld observation that females were more likely to be deaf than males. in add
ition, females were also more likely to have two blue eyes (a condition ass
ociated with an increased prevalence of deafness). However, gender differen
ces in hearing loss were limited to these direct observations. There was no
detectable difference in the prevalence of hearing loss between offspring
of dear mothers and the offspring of deaf fathers. Finally, there was no de
tectable decrease in the prevalence of hearing loss over the years covered
in the data set - suggesting that Dalmatian breeders are not yet selecting
against hearing problems. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserve
d.