**Conflict of interest**

The authors have no conflicts of interest to disclose.

*Aortic Stenosis in Dogs and Cats: Past, Present and Future DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.84891*

*Aortic Stenosis - Current Perspectives*

successful breeding against spreading genetic disorders within the breed requires new strategies in combination with currently available breeding schemes. The widespread use of a popular sire caused the overrepresentation of genomes of a low number of sires in many breeds. As a consequence, the effective population size reduced drastically and the risk for rapid dissemination of monogenic disorders within the population increased significantly. The accessibility of reliable genetic tests for detection of carriers of recessive disease-associated alleles represents an important tool for reduction or even elimination of genetic disorders from purebreed populations. Increasing the number of breeding animals (especially males), controlled introgression of genetic material into closed pure-breed populations, and application of advanced breeding strategies are measures, which will help the

Aortic/subaortic stenosis has a guarded prognosis if moderate to severe; however, efforts have been made in several aspects to fight the disease. First, screening programs have lowered the incidence of the disease (Bussadori 2006, personal unpublished data), and secondly, interventional methods have advanced and might give better prognosis for severely affected dogs; on the other hand, there is still room for surgical methods to take place in veterinary medicine and be more readily available. The genetic background for aortic stenosis is not completely known; however, several mutations, associated with the disease in different breeds, allow development of strategies for genetic screening which would reduce the risk for the

The authors acknowledge the financial support of the Slovenian Research

breeders to keep genetic pools of different dog breeds healthy.

**13. Future perspectives and conclusions**

Agency (research programs P4-0053 and P4-0092).

The authors have no conflicts of interest to disclose.

disease in pure-breed dogs.

**Acknowledgements**

**Conflict of interest**

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