Last week I was called out to vaccinate a Tal-Kaċċa puppy. This Maltese breed has always intrigued me, not only because of its beauty, but also from the perspective of the purity of its line.
It was therefore with anticipation that I met the owners of this latest addition to the collective breed, and I was not disappointed.
Pearly May is a fine specimen of Tal-Kaċċa. At only eight weeks, you can already see the typical physiognomy of the breed, with all its characteristic markings and stance, heavy drooping ears, soft skin folds on the skin of its head due to its tender age and a pair of puppy eyes pleading for affection.
The Tal-Kaċċa dog is very much a local breed. People in the know will tell you that it bears distinct similarities to pointing dog breeds in neighbouring countries – in particular the French Braques de L-Ariege and, to a lesser extent, the Italian Bracco.
We have every reason to be proud of this heritage
Both these breeds are established and recognised internationally. So why is Tal-Kaċċa not yet a recognised breed?
We have every reason to be proud of this heritage and to avoid that such breeds become extinct due to a lack of breeding or dilution with other breeds, as has happened with many ancient European dog breeds.
For example, the pointing dog breed Braque du Puy, which was originally bred in France, has now died out to the extent that it is no longer found in its original form and would need to be genetically reconstituted from DNA sourced from pointing dogs that bear traces of its original composition. But why let it get this far?
These are exciting times. What used to be science fiction has now become science. Genetics, which is the study of genes or DNA, and which determines the stuff we are made of has now become accessible at every practical level.
In veterinary medicine, it has become possible to perform genetic tests for certain hereditary diseases, such as polycystic kidney disease, in Persian cats among others. DNA testing is also commercially available for parentage testing, for example, to find out whether two individual dogs are closely related or otherwise.
Also interesting is the number of companies that offer a mixed-breed identification test through which you can find out what ancestry your mixed-breed dog is comprised of.
Several of my clients thoroughly enjoyed finding out their dog’s family tree in terms of breeds. With DNA banks of over 160 breeds, these companies are also able to determine and certify that your dog is a pure breed if they already hold the DNA profile for that specific breed.
So what about our Tal-Kaċċa breed? It would be very interesting to perform a study with one of these companies to be able to learn about the DNA profile of our local breed. And, this is exactly what a group of us have set out to achieve.
James Galea, a local breeder of the Bracco Italiano and English Pointer, Lucas Micallef, a representative of the FKNK, and Andrew Portelli, a Tal-Kaċċa and English Pointer breed enthusiast, and myself will be taking samples for a genetic study of the Tal-Kaċċa breed in Malta.
This will entail collecting as many DNA samples as we can from Tal-Kaċċa dogs in Malta.
The study will be conducted at the dog show that attracts possibly the largest number of Tal-Kaċċa dog owners in one place – the annual Mnarja Show, organised by the FKNK at Buskett Gardens.
This year it will be held next Sunday and we shall be meeting with Tal-Kaċċa dog owners to collect DNA samples from their dogs.
DNA testing consists of taking a mouth swab, which can be cross-identified against a particular dog. The swabs will be sent for profiling, after which we hope to gain valuable insight into the ancestry of our Tal-Kaċċa, such as how pure its line is, where this breed originated from and how it is related to other breeds.
We are optimistic that this project will be successful and that most of the finer specimens of the breed will be present at the show.
Gates at the Mnarja Show next Sunday will open at 8.30am.
thisweekwiththevet@gmail.com
Martin Debattista is a veterinary surgeon.