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The American Lhasa Apso Club Health and Education Trust Get a FREE CED with a $15 or greater tax deductible donation to the ALAC Health and Education Trust Mail your donation to: Thomas Worlton 1859 Hidden Hills Road Eagle Mountain, UT 84043 and you will receive the free CD "Tipsy Song" written by a Richmond VA resident who is the proud owner of a sweet and loving Lhasa Apso. The song was written about his dog and he has donated these CD's in an effort to help the fund raising for the Kidney Disease DNA reseach that is under way at this time. So send your donation today and receive your free CD. Donations tax deductible Established in 1998. The Health and Education Trust is a charitable trust. All donations to this trust are tax deductible. Donations made to the trust will be used for the betterment of the Lhasa Apso. We are all concerned with the health issues of our precious friends and their future. Areas of concern for the health of the Lhasa will receive monies from this trust to further research, Any donation that you can contribute will help preserve this wonderful breed. All donations should be sent to: Thomas Worlton, Trust Treasurer 1859 Hidden Hills Road Eagle Mountain, UT 84043 801-280-0486 and marked as "ALAC H&E" RECENT NEWS from: At the end of last year, our Renal Dysplasia Researcher, Mary Whiteley, PhD University of Ottawa, decided to move back to her native Canada to be closer to her family. She has reconstituted her company in Canada with a new name, Dogenes. The website is currently under construction but she promises that RD research information will be up shortly: www.dogenes.com The American Shih Tzu Club is also supporting her research and she is applying for an "acorn grant" from the AKC Canine Health Foundation. In Mary's last progress report to me, she said she had completed the sequencing of three genes without finding a mutation associated with renal dysplasia. These three genes have been put into the public domain; she is not patenting them. Mary is now working on a fourth gene that is involved with the development of the fetal glomeruli. Mary is 100% determined to find the right gene and develop a real test for us. On Mary's new website, you will see a database for Lhasa Apsos. Mary is offering this free to ALAC members and non-members who donate towards the research. The database will provide owners with a place to publish the results of their dogs' RD tests IF they wish to do so. DNA Solutions LLC, 11014 Schuylkill Rd., Rockville, MD, 20852 301-881-2235 We wish to thank you for your support in our efforts to uncover a mutation responsible for renal dysplasia in your breed. This includes the parent club as well as the Lhasa Apso Club of Colorado. We are pleased to announce that we have discovered a mutation in our candidate gene that could account for this disease. To this end, we are pursuing a screening test and pedigree study* (see below) to confirm our findings. In principal, the identified mutation should affect the biological function of the gene in question. We still have a lot of work to do to confirm that this mutation is the cause of renal dysplasia in your breed. We have DNA sequenced the entire gene from an affected Lhasa as well as another breed not known to have RD. Now we go on to the next step. All interested participants in the Lhasa Apso pedigree study, as well as other breeds afflicted with juvenile RD, should contact us at info@DNASolutions.biz or 301-881-2235 or 301-770-3586. Again, this is a very exciting first step in solving this problem in Lhasas and other breeds. Thank you so much, Mary H. Whiteley, Ph.D., President, DNASolutions LLC Note: WHAT IS A PEDIGREE STUDY? The pedigree study does not use actual pedigrees as we think of them. Mary needs to DNA test affected Lhasas and their parents to ensure that the test she's developing will provide us with accurate information before we breed. The study will DNA test 50 dogs at no charge to the owners. Mary is looking for Lhasas diagnosed as affected by renal dysplasia, either by biopsy or (in a young dog) by elevated BUN/Creatin. This study is COMPLETELY confidential...Mary will not share your name nor the dogs' names with anyone. You can even use fake names if you choose. The DNA screening test will be an easily administered cheek swab test, just like what we now do for DNA identification. Donations: BENEFACTORS: While we know of no benefactors who could donate $65,000 for the love of our breed, we seek leaders in the breed who will donate $1,000 or more. PATRONS: A donation of $500 will designate you a patron of the breed. BREEDER HONOR ROLL: We ask each Breeder of Merit to join the Breeder Honor Roll with a contribution of $100 -- that's just $10 for each of your ten qualifying champions. Groups may sponsor a breeder who has passed away. Sponsors will be credited. MEMORIAL HONOR ROLL: Memorial donations of $25 each to honor a Lhasa Apso that has passed away. The dog does not have to be your own. DIME-A-DAY We ask each individual member to donate $36.50 -- just a dime a day for a year -- to further breed health. Surely, this is the least we can do. That's less than two entry fees, and the benefit surpasses any show. W will have other fundraising efforts underway, but direct cash donations are the quickest and carry the least overhead. You will receive a receipt for your tax-deductible donation and your name will be published with regular reports. If you have questions, suggestions, or would like to help with the fundraising, please contact me or Lynn Jamison. Lynn will be at the National doing Canine Good Citizen certifications. Proceeds go to the foundation. Contributions may be sent to: Cassandra de la Rosa 1312-11th Court SW Olympia, WA 98502 email: delarosa@olywa.net