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Canine Mendelian disease record

Early Retinal Degeneration (Discovered in the Norwegian Elkhound; erd)

Early Retinal Degeneration (Discovered in the Norwegian Elkhound; erd). Autosomal recessive. Observed in 0 of 266 breeds tested in the Sniff Atlas, with measured variant frequencies drawn from 242,664 dogs (Donner 2023). Whether a dog carrying this variant is at risk depends on the disease’s inheritance pattern; outcome also depends on penetrance, modifiers, and environment. The frequencies below describe variant prevalence, not confirmed disease incidence.

OMIA identifier
OMIA:001297-9615
Autosomal recessive
Linked gene
STK38L
Human counterpart
In humans, this gene is STK38L. OMIM 615836 In people, STK38L appears tolerant of loss-of-function variation (gnomAD v4.1 constraint, LOEUF 0.68). Constraint measures intolerance to loss-of-function only and does not indicate importance; some tolerant genes cause disease through other mechanisms.
Source dataset
Sniff Atlas v1.0.1 / DOI
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.

Summary

This disorder has been renamed in OMIA on the basis of the review by Miyadera et al. (2012)

Clinical features

As photoreceptor differentiation occurs postnatally in dogs (Goldstein et al., 2010), clinical signs will present from around 3-10 weeks of age. Given the affected type of photoreceptors, reduced night vision and night blindness are a common initial clinical presentation (Acland et al., 1987). Affected animals can present with poor generalised vision. Retinal degeneration will occur rapidly in the first 6 months, and then more gradually thereafter (Berta et al., 2011). Complete loss of vision will be reached at around 12-18 months of age (Acland et al., 1987). IT thanks DVM student Martina Bai, who provided the basis of this contribution in May 2023.

Molecular genetics

Goldstein et al. (2010): "Fine mapping followed by candidate gene analysis of erd ... established that the disease cosegregates with a SINE insertion in exon 4 of the canine STK38L/NDR2 gene. The mutation removes exon 4 from STK38L transcripts and is predicted to remove much of the N terminus from the translated protein ... ."

Pathology

Postnatal development of the photoreceptors is abnormal, with variations in morphology and function (Acland et al., 1987). Particularly, disparities are seen in the length and alignment of inner and outer segments of adjacent rods (Acland et al., 1987). Photoreceptors in affected dogs will undergo cell division and differentiate into hybrid rod/S-cone photoreceptors. Apoptosis and cell death may also occur (Berta et al., 2011). Rod and cone synapses will fail to develop correctly, eventually leading to retinal degeneration (Goldstein et al., 2010). IT thanks DVM student Martina Bai, who provided the basis of this contribution in May 2023.

Human analog

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

Gene · OMIM 615836

Source: OMIA (Nicholas, Tammen & the Sydney Informatics Hub), entry OMIA:001297-9615, 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 15.

  2. The Blue Book: Ocular disorders presumed to be inherited in purebred dogs. 13th Edition · https://ofa.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/ACVO-Blue-Book-2021.pdf · 2021

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.

Your breed

See what Early Retinal Degeneration (Discovered in the Norwegian Elkhound; erd) looks like in your dog's breed.
Variant frequency by breed

Observed only in small-sample breeds

Maximum variant frequency 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.

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 variant 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:001297-9615.

  • 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:001297-9615 · Donner et al. 2023 · gnomAD v4.1 (Karczewski 2020)