SWEET ITCH.........INHERITED?

[Spook]

Is Sweet Itch inhereted?

Does line breeding increase the likleyhood of Sweet Itch?

Would you use breeding stock with sweet itch?

Would you accept a mare with sweet itch to your stallion
for covering?

 

[neverlate]

My mare had sweet itch, but doesnt anymore. My vets say it is an inherited disies. Worked at a yard wich had a highland stallion who had sweet itch, and they claim it isnt inherited. However the cowboys dont let the mare owners know that he has sweet itch, and he is in 24/7 and coverd in sprays. In my experience it depends who you ask.

 

[clair]

Personally, i wouldn't breed from a mare with swet itch just in case. Have only ever owned one horse with it and swore not to repeat the experiance.

 

[murrison]

[ QUOTE ]
My mare had sweet itch, but doesnt anymore. My vets say it is an inherited disies. Worked at a yard wich had a highland stallion who had sweet itch, and they claim it isnt inherited. However the cowboys dont let the mare owners know that he has sweet itch, and he is in 24/7 and coverd in sprays. In my experience it depends who you ask.

[/ QUOTE ]

Tinkerbell. I would consider what that stud is doing to be fraudulent.
If I had sent a mare there then I would be looking for recompense, whether my foal developed SI or not.
I was going to say that I cant believe that this stallion is covering mares. But unfortunatly, I can.

 

[alleycat]

I suppose you could say that sweet itch itself isn't inherited but the tendency to it might be. It seems very widespread in Welsh Ds, IMO. If you look at any "sweet itch -what shall I do" thread I'd say most of the posters will own natives, and a large proportion of them will have Welsh Ds. My first experience of it was with a welsh cob filly in last year's humid summer on unusually good grass; previously she (and before that her mum and half sister) had been quite "itchy" when changing their coats etc. without actually getting sweet itch as such. Thoroughbreds kept in the same field were unaffected.

There's clearly a big management element too. That the filly was previously OK suggests the warm wet summer favoured the midgies- but I wonder whether diet is part of it too; its said you can make your horse unpalatable to midges by giving it a daily Marmite sandwich, so conversely maybe good grass makes them tastier

If the problem wasn't too extreme I wouldn't entirely rule out breeding but it would be a negative in the equation for me.

I wonder if the natives living AS natives out on the wild and windy hillsides would be affected; is it the downside to being a good doer designed for rough living (the same as the tendency to become overweight on well kept grazing), or is it an entirely seperate problem?

 

[alleycat]

Further to the Welsh Ds- I suppose the frequency of the sweet itch might reflect the popularity of the breed- ie. more Welsh Ds than other natives so more instances of sweet itch, but I think its more than that myself.

Our Welsh A was never affected in all the years we had her.

 

[Spook]

Ineresting points, I wonder if the line breeding of natives has fixed an undesirable trait inadvertantly, whilst trying to fix the desirable ones.

I understand that Sweet Itch is very rare in thoroughbreds, perhaps their studs and breeders have been more vigilant.

Not sure on the legal thing, but would be surprised if standing a stallion at public stud with known allergies and or genetic problems and not declareing them to mare owners is not contravening the Trading Standards regulations.

 

[Spook]

I agree with Silversons, It would seem foolish to risk breeding from a mare with SI or to use a stallion with it. I have known of two mares who had SI and most of their foals eventually developed it.

Tinkerbell, the situation with the highland stallion is disgraceful, but like murrison I'm not abit surprised.

There is a quote from this weeks H&H
"Be an ethical and responsible breeder---dont breed problems. If you are breeding a particular breed, research genetic breed disorders and if applicable, have your mare or stallion tested"
So far as I know there is no test for SI but I think that opinion is changing and that it will not be long before it is considered a serious genetic problem. It is very difficult to get information on genetic breed disorders as the breed societies and breeders are for obvious reasons loath to give such information. It's abit like the pedigree dog problems isnt it?

 

[maginn]

I also agree with the previous comments, it's not worth the risk. There are plenty of stallions out there without this problem. I understand that the worse affected breed are the icelandics, but they only develop it when they are shipped to warmer climes with higher midge counts and once they have left Iceland they won't allow them back in for some reason so you can't help them that way. I had a horse that really suffered badly previously. He was Han X Connemara. It's def the native breeds and crosses which seem predisposed and strangly foals never show any symptoms, they develop as they get older.

The only thing that really worked in my experience was to rug 24/7 (eg boett or similar) but even that is not 100% effective. Before having a horse with sweet itch I would have bought one thinking it wouldn't be too difficult to manage ...but not now. I believe they are developing a vaccine, but even if they manage it what will it cost ? It is truly heart breaking watching your horse rub itself to shreds, despite all you have done to try to help, avoid at all costs in my opinion. This website is very useful for information:

http://www.sweet-itch.co.uk/index.html

 

[flyingfeet]

One of mine has sweet itch, his full brother doesn't have it. The dam didn't have it and half sister / stallion lines didn't

Sweet itch is the immune system in overdrive reacting to midge bites. So I am going to buck the trend and say if my gelding was a mare I would consider breeding from him as he is very special and talented. There is no real evidence that SI is inherited.

 

[Spook]

It's interesting to hear from someone with a differing opinion Cotswold SJ. do you think that potential buyers would be put off such a foal if they knew that one of the parents had SI?
Just curious but what breed is the one you have with SI?
The ones I have known, other than Icelandics and Shires, have been welsh or highlands or their partbreds

 

[flyingfeet]

The one with sweet itch is selle francais x unknown native type (14.1hh connemara / higland looking). However lots of people have offered to buy him despite the sweet itch, but he is exceptional.

To be fair though, I'd consider breeding as I haven't actually managed to part with my homebreds (my oldest is now 14!). So I am generally breeding for me, not profit to sell on.

This is him:

 

[Spook]

Hi CotswoldSJ, interstinghly one of the PB's with SI I know of is Selle Francais X Highland, it would be unfair to name the sire but its mother was a registered highland mare with SI. there is no way that I would have considered covering her with a stallion whos reputation I was responsible for.
Yours does look talented and its good to see him operating so well.