Curious about how widespread this has become: Do breeders now routinely test their broodmares and stallions for ECVM?
by test, do you mean xray? there’s no genetic marker identified yet.
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Yes, there’s now a specific x-ray protocol for identifying the cervical vertebra malformation.
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I wish they would!
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Granted I’m not deep in the breeding world, but AFAIK no one is doing this as a matter of course. It’s not like the 5 panel tests and that sort of thing.
Not to mention that the veterinary community isn’t really confident on what sort of X-ray = clinical issues. At least not yet.
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It is changing.
Breeders are, in fact, responding if and when buyers demand details in the light of this:
“the ventral process of C6 being unilaterally or bilaterally absent has been reported in multiple breeds from numerous countries, for example, Australian Thoroughbreds (38%) and Dutch Warmbloods (33%)”
(Morphology of the Ventral Process of the Sixth Cervical Vertebra in Extinct and Extant Equus : Functional Implications. Animals 2023 , 13 https://doi.org/10.3390/ani13101672)
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