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Canine Mendelian disease record

Sensory Neuropathy (Discovered in the Border Collie)

Sensory Neuropathy (Discovered in the Border Collie). Autosomal recessive. Observed in 3 of 266 breeds tested in the Sniff Atlas, with measured carrier frequencies drawn from 242,663 dogs (Donner 2023). Per-dog phenotype outcome depends on penetrance, modifiers, and environment; the carrier frequencies below describe variant prevalence, not disease incidence.

OMIA identifier
OMIA:002032-9615
Autosomal recessive
Source dataset
Sniff Atlas v1.0.1 / DOI
The human connection

A model of human neuropathy, hereditary sensory and autonomic, type 2B

This is the canine counterpart of neuropathy, hereditary sensory and autonomic, type 2B in people. That makes affected dogs a naturally-occurring model of the human disease, and it is part of why studying dogs moves medicine forward for everyone. It does not mean your dog has the human disease. It means the two share an underlying biology.

In people, the disease is described as: Any hereditary sensory and autonomic neuropathy type 2 in which the cause of the disease is a mutation in the RETREG1 gene.

In humans it is also called: HSAN2B.

MONDO:0013142 OMIM 613115

Mapped from OMIA via the human disease's OMIM entry to the Mondo Disease Ontology (Monarch Initiative, CC-BY 4.0). Sniff renders this as a model-of link; the canine disease remains the subject of this page.

About this disease

From OMIA's curated record

Documented in OMIA (Online Mendelian Inheritance in Animals). This describes the disease as recorded in the published literature, not a prediction for any individual dog. As of 2026-06-03.

Clinical features

Forman et al. (2106): " Clinical signs start between two and seven months of age and include progressive proprioceptive ataxia with intermittent knuckling of the paws, hyperextension of the limbs, and self-mutilation wounds in the distal part of the limbs . . . . Usually, the pelvic limbs are more severely affected than the thoracic limbs. There is decreased or loss of proprioception and nociception in all limbs, and in some cases autonomic signs such as urinary incontinence and in the later stage regurgitation has also been reported (Vermeersch et al. 2005). Electrophysiological studies show decreased or absent sensory nerve compound action potentials, normal or reduced motor nerve conduction velocities and normal electromyography in the appendicular muscles." Gutierrez-Quintana et al. (2021): "Five related mixed breed puppies from 2 litters were presented over a 2-year period ... . All had a previous history of severe mutilation of the distal pelvic limbs and chronic progressive pelvic limb gait abnormalities. ... Electrodiagnostic testing was performed ... and abnormalities were limited to the absence of sensory nerve action potentials (SNAP) during sensory nerve stimulation."

Molecular genetics

Forman et al. (2016): "6.47 Mb inversion [omia.variant:752] was identified with breakpoints in intron 3 of FAM134B (chr4:86,910,352) and in an upstream intergenic region (chr4:80,439,639) . . . All three cases were homozygous for the inversion and all 170 controls homozygous for the reference allele." Amengual-Batle et al. (2018) reported the same variant in two affected mixed-breed dogs. 
Gutierrez-Quintana et al. (2021): "Whole genome sequencing identified a missense variant in the RETREG1 [also called Fam134B] (reticulophagy regulator 1) gene (c.656C > T, p.P219L) [omia.variant:1342]. All [three] affected [mixed breed] dogs were homozygous for the variant, which was not detected in 1193 dogs from different breeds." Letko et al. (2024) conducted whole genome sequencing on a purebred German Spitz with acral mutilation syndrome and identified the variant previously reported by Gutierrez-Quintana et al. (2021) (omia.variant:1342) as likely causal variant. "Haplotype analyses and targeted genotyping revealed a likely German Spitz ancestry of these mixed breed dogs" reported by Gutierrez-Quintana et al. (2021).

Pathology

Gutierrez-Quintana et al. (2021): "No macroscopic changes were observed. Histopathological abnormalities were limited to the peripheral nerves, dorsal root ganglia, and autonomic ganglia. Nerve histology indicated moderate myelinated fiber loss and axonal features compatible with Wallerian degeneration with some dystrophic changes."

Human analog

OMIA links this condition to its human counterpart in OMIM (Mendelian Inheritance in Man), the place to read across to the deeper human literature for the same biology.

Disease · OMIM 613115 Gene · OMIM 613114

Source: OMIA (Nicholas, Tammen & the Sydney Informatics Hub), entry OMIA:002032-9615, doi:10.25910/2AMR-PV70 (CC-BY 4.0).

Signs & cross-references

How it presents

Catalogued in the Mondo disease ontology (the cross-species disease identity used by the Monarch Initiative) as neuropathy, hereditary sensory and autonomic, type 2B (MONDO:0013142).

Phenotype terms: Human Phenotype Ontology + Mammalian Phenotype Ontology; disease terms: Mondo (Monarch Initiative). Cross-references curated by OMIA (doi:10.25910/2AMR-PV70, CC-BY 4.0).

The evidence

Published references

The peer-reviewed papers behind this disease, curated by OMIA. Starred entries are OMIA-designated landmark papers. Showing 6 of 12.

References curated by OMIA (Nicholas, Tammen & the Sydney Informatics Hub), doi:10.25910/2AMR-PV70 (CC-BY 4.0). Full list at the OMIA entry.

Predict a litter

Set each parent's status for Sensory Neuropathy (Discovered in the Border Collie) and see the odds for their puppies. Single recessive variant, exact Mendelian math.

Parent A
Parent B
NNClear
NmCarrier
NmCarrier
mmAffected
Clear25%
Carrier50%
Affected25%

These are the genetic odds for one known variant, not a promise: a real litter varies around them, and penetrance or other genes can change whether the condition ever appears. Use it to avoid pairing two carriers and to keep a line healthy, not to engineer a dog. Inheritance mode per OMIA.
Your breed

See what Sensory Neuropathy (Discovered in the Border Collie) looks like in your dog's breed.
Carrier frequency by breed

Top 3 well-sampled breeds (n ≥ 50)

Maximum per breed across variants in the Donner 2023 cohort, with . The list below is split into well-sampled breeds (n ≥ 50 tested) and small-sample breeds (n < 50, where the Wilson CI typically spans more than 20 percentage points and frequencies should not be compared directly to the well-sampled entries). Frequencies are population-level, not per-litter or per-line.

0%1%2%
Border Collie0.72% · n 6,714
Rottweiler<0.1% · n 4,718
German Shepherd<0.1% · n 15,648
n = 27,080 dogs · Donner et al. 2023 carrier-screening cohort · Sniff Atlas
Each bar is one well-sampled breed; the whisker is its Wilson 95% CI, and fainter bars have wider intervals. Frequencies are population-level, not per-litter. Carrier status for Sensory Neuropathy (Discovered in the Border Collie) is measured; phenotype outcome depends on penetrance and modifiers.
▸ Full table with Wilson 95% confidence intervals
Breed Carrier frequency n tested
Border Collie 0.72% 6,714
Rottweiler <0.1% 4,718
German Shepherd <0.1% 15,648

263 additional breeds in the Donner 2023 cohort were tested but showed no carriers.

Scope of this record

Scope

This record carries the breed-level carrier frequencies from the Donner 2023 cohort. Penetrance data (the fraction of at-risk dogs that develop the phenotype) is not yet quantified for this disease in the Sniff Atlas v1.0.1. The OMIA entry is the authoritative reference for the clinical phenotype, inheritance pattern, and gene assignment.

Predicted disease relevance at the per-dog level is UNPROVEN. The carrier frequency is measured; phenotype outcome depends on penetrance, environment, and modifier loci. Consult a veterinarian for clinical interpretation.

How to cite this record

Citations

If you use this record in published work, cite the Sniff Atlas (the published dataset that carries the breed-level carrier frequencies) and the upstream sources:

  • Sniff Atlas v1.0.1 for the per-breed carrier frequencies:

    Gehring, M. (2026). Sniff Atlas v1.0.1. Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.20566358. CC-BY 4.0.

  • OMIA for the disease definition, inheritance, and gene assignment:

    Nicholas, F. W., & Tammen, I. (2024). OMIA. Sydney Informatics Hub, The University of Sydney. https://doi.org/10.25910/2AMR-PV70. Entry: OMIA:002032-9615.

  • Donner et al. 2023 for the breed × variant carrier-frequency cohort:

    Donner, J., Freyer, J., Davison, S., Anderson, H., Blades, M., Honkanen, L., et al. (2023). Genetic prevalence and clinical relevance of canine Mendelian disease variants in over one million dogs. PLOS Genetics, 19(2), e1010651. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pgen.1010651.

Full citation formats (BibTeX, RIS, CITATION.cff) at sniff.world/cite.

Related

Related

Last updated
Sources: Sniff Atlas v1.0.1 · OMIA OMIA:002032-9615 · Donner et al. 2023