Narcolepsy (Labrador)

Application:
- Identification of heterozyous carriers.
This test is used to determine whether the dog carries the mutation in the HCRTR2 gene that has been found to cause narcolepsy in Labrador Retrievers. The most striking feature of this disease is the triggering of cataplexy by excitatory events. This leads to flaccid paralysis of individual muscle groups (partial paralysis), or of the entire skeletal musculature (total paralysis). The disease is inherited in an autosomal recessive manner.