When examining for PRA there also will be found a lot of other eye diseases and faults. There are different forms of CATARACTS. In its smaller forms cataracts make a very little affect on the dogs sight. A TOTAL cataract also means total blindness and comes often as a result of PRA. This can often be seen when a dog is tested at 7-8 years of age. You can not see through the lens into the retina. An ERG test is the only way to see if there is any PRA.

All cases of confirmed PRA approved for publishing can be found here.

It is impossible to point out a specific dog as the only cause to this disease. In the pedigrees of these dogs one can find dogs from both England and USA as carriers of the disease. The foundation stock in USA consists of 8 dogs and in UK of 5 dogs. These early imports have been inbred very hard from the beginning and in some lines this hard inbreeding has continued for 10 - 12 generations.

ILAC was started in order to find out the occurrence of PRA in Lhasa Apso around the world. To increase the knowledge of this disease in the breed it is necessary to test as many Lhasa Apsos as possible and to start with the old ones already used in the breeding. To be sure and safe it is also necessary to test the parents of every planned litter. The ophtalmologic veterinarians are talking of an onset age from 2 years up to 8 years and nobody can say a dog is clear at the age of five years. It is impossible to say if a dog is a carrier or a non-carrier. The only known carriers are the parents of a PRA dog and its puppies and the PRA dog itself. What some people call a non carrier from a “free" line can later on be a known carrier as well as developing PRA itself.

Samples of genes from affected Lhasa Apsos have been compared to genes from Irish Setters. Unfortunately the Lhasa type of PRA is not the same as the Setter type. Lhasa Apso breeders can be happy if they can use a proper DNA test before the year 2000.

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