Since this article was written, blue rats have been removed from the Queensland show standards. Please note that this is not intended as an attack on blue rat enthusiasts, rather as a explanation to pet owners as to the problems in the blue line, and why they aren't supported by our club any longer. Blue
Rats Data Report & Summary In the early part of 2003 it became apparent that there seems to be a problem in the blue rat line in Australia. An investigation was launched by AusRFS Inc Qld into this and the results appear below. Please note that in this Report there is Summary and Data, so far no formal conclusion has been reached. Data accumulated during this investigation is listed below the Summary. SUMMARY - Blue rats first appeared in a pet shop in Brisbane nearly 3 years ago. Bexley, the first blue downunder produced by this pet shop was given to a friend of the pet shop owner in late 2001/early 2002 to use for stud purposes. Nearly all breeders sourced their blues or carriers from this source, myself included. During this time frame from the initial appearance of Bexley before he was studded out, he had been bred and prodgeny distributed from the pet shop, sold as pets and are almost 100% untrackable. Bexley was outcrossed to long lived, well established lines that the local breeder had. Myself and several other breeders sourced this first cross, it was a wise choice to mate Bexley to lines with good background history and health and this is exactly what this breeder did. Some time in mid 2002 another blue buck was purchased from this original pet shop that distributed blues, he was named Quicksilver. It's possible thatQuicksilver was Bexley's son, but we will never know for sure as no records are available for those matings. These two bucks may be related considering they both came from the same place although that isnt 100% conclusive. Due to information gained from some overseas breeders about the initial problems they had with their blue rats, we were on the lookout for any similar issues that may appear here. In light of the fact that in Australia we are relatively insulated from the genetic problems of the rat world (because we don’t have a lot of the varieties they have overseas) we really werent expecting any problems to occur in this line. Naïve perhaps, but understandable. In retrospect rather than distributing them thinking everything was fine it would have been wiser to hold them in the ratteries breeding them or with trusted pet owners and then distribute them for breeding after several generations had been accumulated and monitored. Hindsight is always far wiser. During the middle of 2002 a blue rat that originated from another pet shop (#3) had for want of a better word, a bleedout that almost resulted in death. The rat was discovered within 15 minutes of sustaining the injury. Bloodloss was massive, the vet worked on her for several hours and the rat wasn’t expected to live. Miraculously she did. At that time it was investigated to see if other breeders had any issues with blues and found that no one else had experienced any problems so it was viewed as a one off occasion. Most blues/blue carriers were sold privately, rather fortunate as they were able to be monitored quite easily. In late January 2003 a blue agouti doe had a cage injury during the night that caused a bleedout. This resulted in her death despite aggressive attempts by a vet to save her. It was decided that one bleedout could be a coincidence, two certainly couldn’t be dismissed and I made a public annoucement to the effect that there seemed to be a problem in the blue lines and that until a resolution was found our club branch would suspend all blues breeding programs. The initial part of this investigation done by both myself and Virginia McGrath entailed approaching research facilities in the hope that one may be interested enough to take on board testing to see what the problem was. Interstate breeders who had acquired blue rats and blue carriers did have one blue rat blood tested with the results coming back, no abnormalities found. Theories from haemophillia, Von Willebrands, thrombosis, warfarin resistance, white cell count tests were bandied about from scientists, vets and labs with no firm outcome of what could possibly cause this. Research facilities were disinterested, rats in the whole scheme of things arent deemed important whilst bleeding disorders in certain breeds of dogs were deemed important enough to warrant investigation. The only spark of interest shown by a research facility was an interest in the intoduction of the blue does to the wild rat population in countries where warfarin resistance in wild rats meant poisoning was not effective. The theory was introducing blue does into the wild species would solve the warfarin resistance problem. Urrghh! The other spark of interest came from a lab who wanted $5,000AUS up front to begin research. This didn’t really phase Virginia, nor myself, the money was available if we wanted it. Unfortunately she was told that they would require a further $250,000AUS + after the initial payment of $5,000AUS to try and find a resolution, and that didn’t guarantee they could find the solution. Naturally that amount of money was out of the question! Whilst Virginia pursued research facilities further afield, we both consulted overseas vets, breeders and people with extensive genetic knowledge in a bid to find a resolution. In the meantime I followed up people who had blue rats and had aquired them from a variety of breeders. What I found was shocking. Please note that a large proportion of rats investigated were F1 or F2 with very sensible outcrosses. Some people felt that these problems with the blues were the result on heavy inbreeding. This data below comes from F1 and F2 generations, one could hardly call that severe inbreeding, and certainly not enough that would have such catastrophic results, unless of course there is a serious fault in the blue line. This data came from a variety of breeders and pet owners so the data is not specific to just one breeder. If the data was limited to just one breeder one could conclude perhaps a problem in one particular line of blue rats was the case, this still may be true. Originally out of an approximate 85 rats investigated, 33 had issues or were deceased ! Due to ongoing information still being collected, and the fact that some of the rats have no information history available, I can no longer give an accurate figure of existing blue rats compared to blue rats that have experienced problems. Please also note that terms used eg, bleedout and some descriptions of what happened to blue rats are not listed in medical terms but simply terms of explanation of what happened that were given to me. I discovered the following - Homozygous blue does had been the only ones in the investigation that had died of bleedouts, so far there have been no blue bucks dying from this, conclusion? The bleeding disorder is Autosomal/sex linked OR is the sudden death of bucks and does also related to massive internal bleeding with no visible external signs of this? Both homozygous and heterzygous blues have exhibited respiratory issues that have resulted in their death, however serious illness is more prevalent in homozygous blues. Homozygous blue does and bucks are at high risk of sudden death between the ages of 4 to 7 months. No sudden deaths have occurred in heterzygous does or bucks.
DATA Rat #1 - Blue doe - pet shop purchase, delivered babies 5 days later, excessive bleeding during birthing, 10 babies born, 5 stillborn, 5 live. Rat #1 died suddenly, no illness prior at 6 months of age. Rat #2 - Blue doe, daughter of Rat #1, developed tumour (mammary) at 9 weeks of age, sudden death with no illness prior at 3 months of age. Rat #3 - Blue doe, pregnant when purchased from pet shop, excessive bleeding during second birthing, sustained cage injury which was discovered 15 minutes after injury occurred, injury resulting in massive bloodloss, treatment included Vitamin K injections, vet worked for two hours to stabilise her, survived but continued to bleed from other orifices until PTS when eyes filled with blood. Rat # 4 - Blue agouti doe - sustained cage injury but bled to death despite all vetinary attempts to save her, aged 11 months. Rat #5 - Blue buck - sudden death at 7 months of age, minor respiratory illness noticed shortly prior to death Rat #6 - Blue buck - sudden death at 9 months of age, no prior illness exhibited. Rat # 7 - Blue doe - adopted at 6 months of age, 1 week later discovered covered in blood in cage, no injury noted, vetinary care resulted in PTS to alleviate suffering, autopsy showed no external injury, rat was filled with blood internally right up to trachea. Rat # 8 - Blue buck - presented with ongoing respiratory illness most of his life. Rat # 9 - Black downunder doe, blue carrier - presented with abcess on back of neck at 8 months of age, treated and recovered, abcess recurred 2 further times. Respiratory illness ongoing from 8 months of age, died from respiratory illness. Doe was infertile when attempted to breed at 6 months of age. Rat #10 - Black downunder doe, blue carrier, full sister of Rat #9, presented with same problems at 10 months of age, delivered one litter at 7 !/2 months of age, small babies with very slow growth. Respiratory illness developed shortly after abcess appeared, abcess treated and reappeared one more time. Died from respiratory illness. Rat #11 - Blue buck - Developed respiratory illness at 7 months of age, no prior illness evident, Mild wheezing started two weeks prior to death. Serious laboured breathing one week later. No response to aggressive antibiotic treatment, passed away from pneumonia days later Rat #12 - Agouti doe, blue carrier, infertile. Constant respiratory illness, died from respiratory illness at 13 months old. Rat # 13 - Agouti doe, blue carrier. Delivered two litters, no abnormalities noted in first litter, second litter produced one baby (reabsorbed others??) Respiratory illness developed at 16 months, died due to respiratory illness at 20 months. Rat # 14 - Blue doe, had one litter believed to be okay, second litter was pregnant to blue buck when received by breeder, birthing excessive bleeding, 8/9 babies born, only 3 live (all blue berkshires) rest litter stillborn. Doe was in good health until 15 months of age, developed severe respiratory difficulties overnight and passed away early next morning. Rat #15 - Son of blue doe (#14) presented with respiratory illness at 8-9 weeks of age, responded to meds. Rat # 16 - Son of blue doe (#14) presented with pea sized lump in throat at12 weeks of age, discovered to be cyst that burst. Rat #17 - Sole daughter of doe (#14) presented with head tilt at 13 weeks of age, diagnosed inner ear infection, suffered a stroke, paralysed, PTS at 14 weeks of age. Rat #18 - Blue girl, pet shop buy, bled to death internally (vet's diagnosis), no external injuries visible at 5 months of age. Rat #19 - Blue agouti doe, sudden death at 5 months old, no signs of illness prior to death. Rat #20 - Blue agouti doe, sudden death at 4 months, no signs of illness prior to death. Rat #21 - Blue buck, developed chronic myco symptoms at 4 months of age, battled myco until his death at 9 1/2 months of age. Rat #22 - Blue doe, developed myco symptoms at 2 months of age, continued on and off with myco symptoms and treatment with antibiotics, litter born at 6 months of age, small babies, doe lost condition, myco continued until finally PTS to alleviate suffering. Rat # 23 - Blue/blue carrier, developed myco, PTS, age unknown. Rat #24 - Blue/blue carrier, developed myco, PTS, age unknown. Rat #25 - Blue buck, 10 months old, ongoing respiratory illness from age of 4 months, so far responsive to meds. Rat #26 - blue agouti doe, developed respiratory illness at 3 months, abcess on back of neck at 4 months that has not been able to be successfully treated despite aggressive vet care still almost 6 months later. Rat #27 - blue agouti doe, throat tumour at 6 weeks of age, PTS Rat #28 - blue agouti doe, sudden death at 5 months of age Rat #29 - blue agouti doe, developed myco at 4 months of age, non responsive to aggressive meds, PTS Rat #30 - blue doe, developed myco at 5 months of age, non responsive to aggressive meds, PTS Rat #31 - blue doe, suffered from inertia, and after 2 oxcytocin shots, plus 1 of Baytril, was pts as she didn't reaspond to the oxcy. She had one previous litter with previous owner. Doe suffered no undue bleeding other than a handful of spots prior to becoming very immobile, at which time she was taken to the vets. The vets' diagnosis was that she had been in labour for some hours, and had a foetus mispresenting, therefore creating a blockage. Prior to her death, she had never shown any signs of respiratory issues. She died at 14 months of age Rat #32 - blue/blue carrier, severe myco, died at ??? old Rat #33 - blue doe, chronic respiratory problems from a young age. Rat #34 - blue buck, died sudden death at 4 1/2 months of age, autopsy by vet showed all internal organs were undersized, particulary the heart. Rat #35 - Blue buck died suddenly 13 months of age, no prior signs of illness Rat #36 - Blue doe, ongoing respiratory problems from about 4 months of age. Rat #37 - Blue agouti doe, ongoing respiratory problems from 6 months of age. Rat #38 - Blue buck, ongoing respiratory problems and allergies from an early age. PTS at 15 months to alleviate suffering. Tracey York Ex-President AusRFS Inc Qld/Judge COPYRIGHT, above Report, Summary or Data or excerpts of the aforesaid MAY NOT be copied or distributed by any means without the permission/consent of the author
ANALYSIS by Andreas Blahous, Ex-Vice President AusRFS Inc Qld Hi Tracey, Finally have had the opportunity to look at the report in detail and I must admit that it makes for some very interesting reading. From a public health perspective, the observations recorded in your report are quite alarming. The mean age at death for this sample is just below eight months, widely discrepant to that of the whole fancy rat population. The most frequent mechanisms of death (direct or through euthanasia) or of illness are respiratory illness (55%), sudden unexplained deaths (18%) and bleeding (internal and external (12%). Females are more commonly affected than males with 3 does dying for every single buck. In terms of birthing difficulties, nearly half of the sample (47%) of suitable age (greater than 4 months) had a history of difficulties, ranging from bleeding during delivery to stillborns. It is also interesting to note that less than one fifth of the sample showed any response to the veterinary care they received. Combined with information provided to me from several breeders, the published data suggests the following conclusions 1) More frequently than any other colouring, blue coloured rats: · suffer from a variety of serious health conditions, · have conception and birthing difficulties, · die prematurely, and · die due to causes other than old age. 2) Transmission of this syndrome is genetic, parent to offspring, but expression of symptoms is subject to epigenetic influence (internal and external environmental factors) 3) Every extant line of blue coloured rats in Queensland contains rats that have suffered from these symptoms and, therefore, contains the genetic coding for this syndrome. 4) Lines of blue coloured rats not in Queensland were derived from Queensland lines of blue coloured rats and therefore, also contain the genetic coding for this syndrome. 5) Breeding of blue coloured rats from the existing stock will result in progeny that will suffer ill health, breed poorly, and die prematurely, or will carry the genetic coding for this syndrome. 6) Blue rat toxicity refers to the danger of the genes of blue coloured rats contaminating the genes of other colour varieties of rats. 7) Breeding blue coloured rats with other coloured rats may diminish the expression of symptoms in progeny but will not affect transmission. 8) Other coloured progeny of blue coloured rats will still carry the genetic coding for this syndrome. 9) Breeding of other coloured progeny of blue coloured rats (or their descendants) will result in other coloured rats suffering ill health, breeding poorly, and dieing prematurely. 10) AusRFS Inc.Qld. currently does not have the capacity to stop the contamination of other coloured lines of rats with this syndrome. Tracey, I think this is an important issue and one which we will have to take the lead on. With Blue Rat Toxicity and the potential for all colour varieties to be contaminated with genetic material from blue coloured rats, the primary focus should be on confinement. Within our club, I believe that we should take the following steps: 1) Publish deidentified information on the illness concerns associated with blue rats, and an interpretation of this data in plain English to all members of the AusRFS Inc.Qld., other rat and mouse clubs, veterinary associations and the DPI. 2) Discourage the breeding of blue coloured rats, or other coloured rats containing blue colouring genes, through warnings of the consequences and refusal to permit sale of blue coloured rats progeny at shows (personally I feel this should be stronger - submitting planned litters of these rats to Committee, full disclosure to people obtaining progeny and a breeder requirement to monitor progeny for health would be a good start) 3) Removal of the Blue colour class from the standards (Championship points may remain intact - it's unlikely these 'champions' will breed successfully for too long before they die themselves) 4) Develop a system for certifying "Blue Free" rats or lines of rats (Will require better record keeping, I suggest the club develop a standard form of record keeping for breeders to be made available as part of breeder registration as well as implementing a parallel club register of Blue Free rats. 5) Promulgate information on the blue rats to pet shops and the pet industry representatives, calling for a ban on sale of blue coloured rats (or their progeny), and incorporating this ban as part of the standard for awarding club endorsement to pet shops. I think these recommendations, large as they may seem, will place us well to protect other colours of fancy rat here in Queensland. I believe that cooperation with other clubs in Australia would be worthwhile, and would continue the current collaborative network of support and representation for the well being of rats, and of course mice as well. We must be aware, however, that importing rats from areas beyond our jurisdiction may create a vector for Blue Rat Toxicity to affect Queensland lines. It would be prudent to monitor other clubs for their policies on blue rats and any threat these may present to fancy rats in Queensland. Tracey, I've saved the best for last. How are we going to stop this from happening in the future? The addition of new colour, coat and marking varieties is important in advancing the fancy and improving the appeal of pet rats to the public. Yet, with the introduction of blue rats we have seen the potential for new varieties to have significant unintended consequence on the whole fancy. We need to be prepared to act in an informed and appropriate manner in the future. Kind regards, Andreas For more information regarding Australian blue rats please visit the following link: Blue rats
Spritely of The Dapper Rat. |
Blue Rats |
