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Important message from the CMS Committee

Hi all and we hope you are doing well as we're getting closer to spring!


The CMS Committee and Dr. Casal's laboratory are happy with the influx of Sealyham sample submissions. The CMS Committee requested in our letter of December 2025 samples from affected dogs and their direct (offspring, parents, siblings) relatives. The lab is also utilizing additional methods to better understand how the gene suspected of causing CMS is expressed. These methods include RNA sequencing, muscle biopsies, neurological testing and more.


To date, the lab has provided some testing and precious preliminary data to owners at no charge, as part of their study. They are conducting a scientific study to develop a DNA test for all Sealy owners in the future. We understand that some owners have been reaching out to the lab feeling frustrated about the delay in results. Instead, we need to truly appreciate the time, effort and thank the lab for dedicating their work to conducting this critical research on our behalf. Remember, the lab is not functioning as a testing lab for your breeding program. Dr. Casal's laboratory and her staff have multiple projects under way and when multiple breeders are contacting them it only takes time away from this very important work.


It is important to understand this is the labs study and the labs timeline for analysis may not match your expectations. The lab will continue to receive and store samples for analysis. Samples are being sorted according to relevance to the study and will process them as needed.


Reminder, if you have, or have access to, affected dogs, or direct relatives of affected dogs (parents of, siblings of, etc.) please get a blood draw from your vet and mail it to the lab. It can be mailed by FedEx, or USPS, it does not need to be shipped overnight, and multiple samples can go in the same box as long as they are clearly labeled and each has the accompanying consent form. The consent form needs to accompany each blood sample submitted, see Consent Form and Sample Collection Instructions for all the instructions.


ADDRESS FOR SHIPPING:

Casal Lab/Room 4018
Ryan VHUP
3900 Delancey Street
Philadelphia, PA 19104-6010
(215) 898-0029

If, for some reason, your sample was not received by the lab, please collect and resend another sample. These things can happen! Leslie Manis was a 34-year employee of the USDA FSIS who had to submit bacterial cultures to a sister lab for DNA testing, and at times, a small percentage of samples had to be resubmitted due to damage in shipping, a contaminant in the culture, or poor DNA extraction from the sample.


Please direct any future inquiries regarding this research or individual results to the CMS Committee: Leslie Manis, Caitlyn Schleifer, or Karen Montgomery. The committee will continue to share preliminary test results with individual owners as they become available.

Thank you for your continued participation!