Look at what the UK Brussels Griffon Club has put up on its website -- and how much they are doing to start addressing this problem in the breed before it reaches the level of affectedness we are seeing in cavaliers.
http://griffonclub1897.co.uk/Syringomyelia.html
Griffons are important friends to the cavalier breed -- they are the control group for normal dogs in the international CKCS genome project now underway in Canada to find the genes responsible for SM and CM. Sadly, it proved *impossible* to find enough cavaliers clear of both CM and SM to provide the control group so the researchers turned to griffons. So far it appears that about half of griffons have the Chiari-like malformation (CM) that seems to be the key factor that can lead to the development over time of SM.
There's research underway now on griffons and SM and hopefully that will provide information helpful to both breeds and other small breeds affected by SM.
http://griffonclub1897.co.uk/Syringomyelia.html
Griffons are important friends to the cavalier breed -- they are the control group for normal dogs in the international CKCS genome project now underway in Canada to find the genes responsible for SM and CM. Sadly, it proved *impossible* to find enough cavaliers clear of both CM and SM to provide the control group so the researchers turned to griffons. So far it appears that about half of griffons have the Chiari-like malformation (CM) that seems to be the key factor that can lead to the development over time of SM.
There's research underway now on griffons and SM and hopefully that will provide information helpful to both breeds and other small breeds affected by SM.