Breed-Specific Deafness Prevalence In Dogs (percent)

Breed Dogs
Tested		 Bilaterally
Hearing		 Unilaterally
Deaf		 Bilaterally
Deaf		 Total Deaf
(uni + bi)
Dalmatian 6,249 72.0% (4,497) 20.8% (1,297) 7.3% (454) 28.0% (1,751)
Bull Terrier
      white
      colored		 683
362
313		 88.6% (605)
79.6% (288)
98.7% (309)		 10.3% (70)
18.2% (66)
1.3% (4)		 1.2% (8)
2.2% (8)
0.0% (0)		 11.5% (78)
20.4% (74)
1.3% (4)
English Setter 751 87.6% (658) 10.3% (77) 2.2% (16) 12.4% (93)
English Cocker Spaniel
       parti colored
       solid color		 1,641
1,510
69		 94.5% (1,550)
94.4% (1,426)
98.6% (68)		 4.7% (77)
4.8% (72)
1.4% (1)		 0.9% (14)
0.8% (12)
0.0% (0)		 5.5% (91)
5.6% (84)
1.4% (1)
Australian Cattle Dog 603 85.4% (515) 11.8% (71) 2.8% (17) 14.6% (88)
Catahoula Leopard Dog* 214
 61.2% (131) 16.8% (36) 22.0% (47) 38.8% (83)
Jack Russell Terrier*
197
92.4% (182)
4.6% (9)
3.0% (6)
7.6% (15)
Havanese* 169 99.4% (168) 0.6% (1) 0% (0) 0.6% (1)
Whippet*

149

97.9% (146)

 0.7% (1)

1.3% (2)

2.0% (3)
Dogo Argentino* 736
 73.5% (541) 20.9% (154) 5.6% (41) 26.5% (195)
Boston Terrier* 288
 91.0% (262) 5.2% (15) 3.8% (11) 9.0% (26)
Cavalier King Charles Spaniel* 23 47.8% (11) 17.4% (4) 34.8% (8) 52.2% (12)
English Bulldog* 5 40.0% (2) 20.0% (1) 40.0% (2) 60.0% (3)
French Bulldog* 8 37.5% (3) 37.5% (3) 25.0% (2)

62.5% (5)

*Insufficient numbers of animals tested at this time for percentages to be meaningful.

The numbers in this table do not reflect numbers reported by others, shown below, but only data that I have collected.

Breed Deafness Prevalence Data from Other Sources [Source Publication]:

  1. Dalmatians (UK) [Wood J, Lakhani K. 1997. Vet J 154:121-33.]
    N = 1,234
    U = 13.1%
    D = 5.3%
    TD = 18.4%
  2. Dalmatians (Switzerland) [Muhle AD et al. 2002. Vet J 163:311-8.]
    N = 575
    U = 9.4%
    D = 7.1%
    TD = 16.5%
  3. Dalmatians (Germany) [Juraschko K et al. 2003. Vet J 166:164-9.]
    N = 1,899
    U = 12.2%
    D = 7.4%
    TD = 19.6%
  4. Border Collies (UK) [DeRisio  L et al. 2011. Vet J 188:286-90.]
    N = 4,143
    U = 2.0%
    D = 0.4%
    TD = 2.4%
  5. Border Collies (UK) [Platt S et al. 2006. J Vet Intern Med 20:1355-62.]
    N = 2,597
    U = 2.3%
    D = 0.5%
    TD = 2.8%
  6. Australian Stumpy-tail Cattle Dogs (Australia) [Sommerlad S et al. 2010. PLoS One 5:e13364.]
    N = 315
    U = 12.4%
    D = 5.4%
    TD = 17.8%
  7. Australian Cattle Dogs (Australia) [Sommerlad SF et al. 2012. BMC Vet Res 8:1-16.]
    N = 899
    U = 7.5%
    D = 3.3%
    TD = 10.8%
  8. Jack Russell Terriers (US) [Comito B, Knowles KE, Strain GM. 2012. Vet J 193:404-7.]
    N = 1,009
    U = 3.57%
    D = 0.5%
    TD = 4.07%
  9. English Setters (United Kingdom) [Marsh OJR, Freeman J, Van Dijk J, De Risio L. 2019. Vet Record doi:10.1136/ vetrec-2019-105636.]
    10. N = 447
    U = 3.6%
    D = 0.9%
    TD = 4.5%

Dr. George M. Strain
Louisiana State University
Comparative Biomedical Sciences
School of Veterinary Medicine
Baton Rouge, Louisiana 70803
Phone: 225-578-9758
Fax: 225-578-9895
E-mail: strain@lsu.edu

February 6, 2020

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