Merle is a dominant gene which does not occur naturally in the Chihuahua. So for a merle gene to show up within a DNA test, it means that somewhere in its pedigree it has been cross bred.
In Australia, the United Kingdom and New Zealand a Chihuahua who expresses the merle gene, cannot be registered as a purebred, as somewhere in its lines it has been crossed.
As a very basic statement. Merle is a problem in how it works to express colour as it lightens and whitens, which affects the pigment inside the ears and eyes. This can lead to deafness and blindness as the nerve endings atrophy and die off.
According to Idexx, (global leader in pet healthcare) health problems associated with the merle allele both heterozygous merle (Mm) and homozygous double merle (MM) may exhibit auditory and ophthalmic abnormalities including mild to severe deafness, increased intra ocular pressure, ametropia, microphthalmia and colobomas. The double merle genotype may also be associated with abnormalities of skeletal, cardiac and reproductive systems.
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