Re: [PyrNet-L] gene pool size (was size)

[JGentzel@aol.com]

In a message dated 6/15/99 1:05:04 PM Eastern Daylight Time, 
Kshoffman@AOL.COM writes:

<< I would also assume there was some sort of "genetic bottleneck" in Europe 
 (and possibly in the US as well) around the time of WWII.  >>

I thought this at one time myself, but have since found that the dogs simply 
went back to he mountains and meadows, i.e., to the farms and were not 
registered for a few generations.  Senac-Lagrange found many again after the 
war and helped many breeders start again, including Comte de Foix.  There 
always was a diverse population to choose from.  Not always desirable, but 
many choices.  

<< Possibly there have even been other such "bottlenecks" within 
the breeding population at different times in history -- does any timeframe 
or event in particular come to mind that either of you are aware of that 
would have restricted the gene pool in such a manner that virtually all of 
our current dogs are descended from such an "event" that would have resulted 
in a very limited pool of breeding stock?>>

No, I really cannot.  Even when Dretzen "reconstituted the breed" in 1907, 
his dogs that he brought back from the Pyrenees were just a handful.  The 
fact is there were many dogs of good type that he told us about when he 
reported to Mrs. Crane in that wonderful letter he wrote to here that she 
published in her book.  Look where it says he had a young may, Alexandra 
Cazaux-Moutou who left him as a young man and went back to Lourdes and bred 
with local people.  This was de Soum and the local breeders were 
Senac-Lagrange, Langladure, and many others.  There were obviously many dogs 
of good quality left in the Pyrenees.  So while I admire what Dretzen did, I 
believe he was not totally correct in this impression of the almost lost 
breed.  Most of what we have is from that stock left in the Pyrenees and not 
Dretzens.  Or at least I cannot see Dretzen's stock there and that is 
entirely possible taking the French system of registration into account.

Joe