• OptiGen can not explain why PRA in certain dogs, tested affected/C1, appears at the age of e g four years, in others at e g eight years, or why some affected/C1-dogs retain good vision throughout their lifetune. OptiGen has different theories, one being that this subgroup also inherits an unidentified second gene that modifies the onset of PRA, causing some "Affecteds" in the pedigree to exhibit typical prcd-PRA, and some retain good vision throughout their lifetime. OptiGen hopes it will be more clear with ongoing research.
• The English Cocker Spaniel Club reminds us in its Welfare Report, that we have to remember that "AN OPTIGEN-TESTED DOG WITH THE RESULT A CAN STILL BE A CARRIER OF PRA"

The president repeated these words during the meeting and they make this whole debate absolutely insane! The words "Remember a dog tested as clear can be a PRA carrier." at the back of the Welfare Report have been printed there for years and years, long before there was ever a company called OptiGen and refer to clinical eye testing for PRA and other hereditary eye diseases carried out under the British Veterinary Association/Kennel Club scheme!!!!

• there are several different forms of PRA. If a dog/bitch with a breeding ban should be OptiGen B and be accepted to mate an A dog/bitch, how do we know that the eye-tested (clinically) dog/bitch had prcd-PRA?

With all these considerations in  mind the Committee asserts that the breeding base would diminish considerably and that we should obtain more information and wait and see.

Our breed counsellor did not even talk to our PRA experts but called the Poodle Club the day before the meeting.

An other committee member has been lobbying around during the week before the meeting 'informing' members about OptiGen, later called 'Reflections about OptiGen' on the homepage. This very incorrect information was deleted from the website of the Cocker Spanielklubben immediately after the meeting was over! Several of those who wanted to support Motion 3 did not attend the meeting, why? Furthermore several of those members who had supported Motion 1 by 'signing' their names in the Appendix, voted against the motion at the meeting too.

It is incorrect information too, that you are not allowed to mate a B1-dog from another country or a tested dog without the SKK admission form, but you have to test all puppies from that mating.

The statement that 'all puppies from a B1/A1-combination must be OptiGen-tested and that B1-dogs (carriers) from that litter must be banned from breeding is INCORRECT too!
Our club is supposed to suggest how WE want a 'sanitation' period to run, e g the way they do in England, mate B1-dogs as you wish during a period of five years and after that period only A1-dogs are to be bred with. Fair enough.

Both eye specialist L Garman and U-B Karlman (SKK) have confirmed during the last week that there is only one form of PRA among cocker spaniels, prcd-PRA, in Sweden, and elsewhere.

The Committee has neither gathered facts, nor have they informed members about the offer of the SKK to try out a central registration of OptiGen test results during a period of one year and after that period make decisions as to a health program. Nor have they invited veterinary specialists or experts from the SKK.

Why not test and find out if your dog is a carrier for prcd-PRA, rather than not test and not know anything? Meanwhile clinical eyetesting is to be continued as usual.

No expert, no vet, no scientist, no committee, no so and so will make me change my opionion. Call it FN, PNP, renal failure or even FUCKEDUP kidneys, it makes no difference to me! Cocker spaniels that have produced puppies that died because their kidneys did not do what they are meant to do SHOULD NOT BE BRED WITH!!! Puppies will die no matter what the Committee tries to tell us! How will the next case be dealt with, if at all? Instead of claiming, that PNP has nothing to do with FN (Of course it has! They are based on the same bloodlines, for Christ's sake!), we should be highly suspicious of ANY puppy which dies of renal disease at a young age.

It is about time we use the money that breeders donate to the future health of the cocker spaniel and get our OWN gadgets to perform the electronmicroscopy and immunofluoresence tests that are able to detect the abnormalities in the collagen which form the glomerular basement. It is the lack of a certain form of collagen, and the "substitution" of another form of collagen which causes the eventual breakdown of the glomeruli and the slow and relentless march towards irreversible renal failure. Why donate money to detect a disease that has nothing to do with our own problem?

I asked the Committee how the owners of the dogs which have produced the 19 offspring that died of renal failure will be compensated for the damages, economic and goodwill, they have been caused by The Cocker Spanielklubben by being condemned as carriers of PNP, approved by the same vet/PNP expert who now claims the PNP mode of inheritance is not known??? The answer I received was "These dogs have never been banned from breeding." Time to claim DAMAGES! (On March 28, 2006, the following words can be read on the homepage of The Cocker Spanielklubben, internal link PNP: "Föräldrar = anlagsbärare" which means "Parents = carriers". When/Where is the 'old evidence' presented, that both parents are to be considered as carriers?) Dear cocker breeder friends, who know what they are talking about, say it takes about TEN YEARS to 'recover' after you have bred a puppy that died of FN. As if you and your kennels were plague-infested! And now the Cocker Spanielklubben Committee claims that the PNP mode of inheritance is unknown!

41 members, incl committee members, of the Cocker Spanielklubben attended the meeting, several of which non-breeders and novices.

Stoppress! At the breeders' information meeting at Uppsala on December 7, 2005, arranged by the Cockerklubben Uppsala/Länsförsäkringar (insurance company), the attending breeders were informed by the lecturer, referred to above and considered Sweden's only PNP expert, that, quote cutting from the memoranda of one attending member of the Cocker Spanielklubben: "Ärftligheten är inte känd, tyder på recessivt anlag, vet inte säkert. Skydda sig mot recessiva sjukdomar. Föräldrar och helsyskon till en sjuk hund skall INTE användas."!!!!!!!!!!!!! Translation word for word: "Hereditariness is not known, indicates recessive disposition, does/do not know for sure. Protect oneself/oneselves against recessive diseases. Parents and full sisters and brothers to an affected dog are NOT to be used."