TANZANITE BERNESE
17th Annual Berner-Garde Foundation Fundraiser
A Message From Berner-Garde Foundation President Lori Jodar
Joye Neff 2019 Berner-Garde Gift Bonanza
As The Berner-Garde Foundation approaches it 25th year, we have made 2 significant commitments to continue the mission of eliminating genetic disease in the BMD. First the database is undergoing an extreme overhaul which we call BG 5.0. From Gary Galunas our IT guru:
The Berner-Garde Database went online Feb 22, 2004. This was after almost a year of discussion and development and represented an enormous change. Since then, the Berner-Garde Database has been recognized as THE place to go for health and pedigree information on Bernese Mountain Dogs. The database has grown from the 24,225 dogs we had on Feb 22, 2004 to 152,736 dogs today. The table that holds Coefficient of Inbreeding detail information has grown to over 1.3 million rows. The application is currently running reliably but there are some issues we need to address. Our vision must be on the future.
We must upgrade and the focus will be on the application framework and the ease of use on portable devises We are making internal changes that better link medical records with the dogs. And most important we want to do a better job collecting date and cause of death information as more and more researchers are interested in our data.
The 2nd huge commitment is to continue the BMD Repository. The contract between BFG and MSU has been renewed with modifications that better focus on what is necessary to carry out research. We now have close to 4000 unique dogs with DNA stored and 400 tissue samples. The commitment is to increase the tissue collection especially Histiocytic Sarcoma. This is the diagnosis we all dread…untreatable always fatal. But affecting as many as 25% of our dogs.
To that end we have approved a collaborative effort on research between Dr Vilma Yuzbasiyan-Gurkan of Michigan State University and Dr. Elaine Ostrander of the National Institutes for Health. Directly from these amazing scientists:
“The Ostrander and Yuzbasiyan-Gurkan laboratories have agreed to join forces to carry out extensive analysis of gene expression in histiocytic sarcoma in Berners as well as to bolster DNA studies for identification of susceptibility genes using the Bernese Mountain Dog DNA and Tissue Repository at Michigan State University.
We greatly appreciate the support of the Berner fancy, the Berner-Garde Foundation and your tireless efforts on behalf of the health and well-being of the Berners.”
We at Berner-Garde salute Joye Neff for her tireless efforts in support of all thing Bernese and we so appreciate her fundraising on behalf of us. We hope as usual you will dig deep and give from your heart as she again provides us all with a fun and easy and entertaining way to raise money for the causes we love.
Best,
Lori Jodar
President, BGF