Congenital myotonia, characteristic of Fainting Goats, is a heritable neuromuscular disorder characterized by a slow relaxation of skeletal muscles following voluntary contraction. The sudden muscle stiffness often causes the animal to fall over briefly.
The gene underlying the production of alpha-s1 casein in goat's milk shows polymorphisms which affect the amount of protein and fat produced. This test detects variants known to be correlated with high and low production levels of alpha-s1 casein.
Scrapie is a fatal, infectious neurodegenerative prion disease that affects sheep and goats. Natural mutations in the prion protein gene of sheep and goats have been identified which confer susceptibility or resistance to scrapie.
