PROGRESS IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF A 
HISTOCOMPATIBLE DOG 
J. W. Templeton, A. L. Rogers and W. S. Fletcher* 
The Departments of Surgery and Animal care at the 
University of Oregon Medical School (UOMS) main- 
tain a canine breeding colony which produces approxi- 
mately 300 purebred Labrador retrievers each year for 
medical research purposes. The colony was established 
in 1961 for the specific purpose of producing well-defined 
dogs for medical research with a primary goal of pro- 
ducing a large histocompatible dog. There are several 
ongoing programs in the colony for better defining the 
dog as a research animal. These programs are basic 
husbandry studies, analysis of costs of producing dogs, 
physiology studies, reproductive physiology and genetic 
studies. 
The basic husbandry studies include optimum methods 
of whelping, health care, feeding, cleaning, penning, 
socialization and record keeping. The basic production 
cost of rearing a dog to six months of age has been 
determined to be $80.79. The physiology studies have 
been primarily in the area of cardiac function in the 
developing dog. The reproductive physiology studies 
are at present emphasizing artificial insemination and 
the storing of frozen semen. There have been ten litters 
born in the colony to date from bitches impregnated 
with frozen semen stored from one to nine months. 
The genetic studies have primarily been concerned 
with the theoretical possibilities of producing a histo- 
compatible dog as a surgical model for organ trans- 
plantation, genetic, immunological, cancer and other 
studies. The development of a histocompatible dog 
would allow the maintenance of transplantable tumors 
and open up a whole new area of investigation in an 
animal of such size as to allow surgical procedures and 
of such longevity as to allow prolonged chemothera- 
peutic and immunologic studies. 
INTRODUCTION** 
It is the basic premise of the authors that one 
of the primary problems of medical research 
performed on dogs is the dog itself. Although 
scientific institutions have been meticulous 
about the quality of other animals used in re- 
search, they have been content for the most 
* University of Oregon Medical School, Portland, Oregon 97201. 
** This work was supported in part by the National Institutes 
of Health, PHS Grant No. RR00389, The Louis and Maud Hill 
Family Foundation, the American Kennel Club, Morris Animal 
Foundation, and the Dog Fanciers Association of Oregon. 
part to use dogs of unknown age, health, tem- 
perament, genetic and nutritional backgrounds. 
The result has been the use of large numbers 
of dogs for the production of much questionable 
data. (The National Research Council reported 
that at least 372,000 dogs were used for re- 
search purposes in 1969.^) 
The documentation of the superiority of dogs 
bred for research to random source dogs is 
scarce, but it is generally known that there is 
a high mortality rate of dogs in research for 
reasons other than the experimental proce- 
dures. There is a report from Colorado that a 
group of random source dogs undergoing renal 
autotransplants and a routine immunosuppres- 
sive schedule suffered a 50% mortality rate for 
a variety of reasons. ^ The superiority of the 
Labrador retrievers from the University of 
Oregon Medical School Canine Breeding Col- 
ony to random source pound dogs for experi- 
mental heart valve replacement was tested.^ The 
dogs selected for experimentation were surplus 
male Labrador retrievers at least eight months 
of age or older and weighed 60 pounds or more, 
and conditioned, healthy pound dogs which 
weighed 60 pounds or more. There was 79 Lab- 
rador retrievers and 55 pound dogs in the ex- 
periment (see Table I). 
The survival rate was calculated on 5-day 
postoperative survival and the increased sur- 
vival rate of the Labrador retrievers to that of 
the pound dogs is highly significant (P<0.01). 
In addition to altering experimental results the 
use of pound dogs may also increase research 
costs in spite of the initial low cost of the dog. 
In this same experiment the cost of each sur- 
gical procedure was $562.06 which does not in- 
clude the cost of the dog, surgeon's time, over- 
head, or autopsy costs but only the actual 
operative and postoperative care expense (see 
Table II). There is no doubt that these costs 
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