Daily Mail, Tuesday, March 3, 2020^ Page 11people following in the footsteps of
their parents and owning a dog as
a hobby today.
‘Setters need a couple of hours of
exercise a day. Today everyone has
to have a job and don’t necessarily
have the time to do that.’
Red and white setter breeder
Julian Barney believes there are
several reasons for why the breed
is in a perilous state. He said: ‘We
have this fashion for smaller
designer dogs now, and red and
white setters are a size that suit a
particular environment.
‘They wouldn’t be good in a flat
for instance. We also don’t have the
number of breeders out there for
them right now. The general public
also don’t know they actually exist.When I take mine for a walk, peo-
ple ask me what it is, because they
have never seen one before.
Irish red and white setters date
back to the Roman times when
they would be used to help with
netting game birds. The nets werepopularity of the red setter, which
had a rich chestnut coat. Puppies
with more red in their coat were
used for breeding and the white
element of the red and white setter
was bred out.
Paul Keevil, of the Kennel Club’s
vulnerable breed committee, said:
‘Irish red and white setters have
been on our list from its inception.
Instead of recovering they have
been in decline for the last ten
years, although this is the first time
they have been at the bottom.
‘It is a very bleak future for them.
They need more breeders, younger
breeders. People also need to see
what fabulous dogs they are.’
How to have a healthier,
happier pet – Centre PagesMail’s pros tate cancer victory
A BLOOD test that detects Alzhe-
imer’s early could be carried
out at the doctor’s surgery, a
study suggests.
Researchers found sufferers of
the incurable disease had blood
levels of a type of brain protein
three-and-a-half times higher
than those without.
The key to treating the illness
lies in early detection, when
drugs are more effective.
The study, led by University of
California San Francisco, saidthat if approved the test could
be used in primary care units
such as surgeries.
Researchers tested more than
400 patients aged 58 to 70 – some
already diagnosed with Alzhe-
imer’s – to measure the protein
pTau181 in the blood, the journal
Nature Medicine reports.
The authors said that existing
methods for diagnosing Alzhe-
imer’s, such as brain scans, were
expensive and not easy to per-
form for large populations. Sen-ior researcher Adam Boxer said:
‘This test could eventually be
deployed in a primary care set-
ting for people with memory
concerns to identify who should
be referred to specialised cen-
tres to participate in clinical tri-
als or to be treated with new
Alzheimer’s therapies, once
they are approved.
‘Individuals with early Alzhe-
imer’s are more likely to respond
to many of the new treatments
that are being developed.’Blood test for Alzheimer’s at the GP
identified by almost half. They also
slash the number of men subjected
to painful biopsies by a quarter.
These biopsies are also inaccu-
rate, because without a scan sam-
ples are taken at random from the
prostate. If doctors carry out an
MRI scan first, 28 per cent of men
can be sent home straight awaywithout needing a biopsy. And for
the remainder of the men, doctors
are able to conduct the biopsy
with far greater accuracy, using
the MRI scan to sample directly
from suspicious tissue.
As a result, doctors can diagnose
46 per cent more ‘clinically signifi-
cant’ cancers – 38 for every 100
men scanned, compared with 26
for every 100 men who have a
biopsy alone.
More than 50,000 men are diag-
nosed with prostate cancer in the
UK each year, making it now the
most commonly diagnosed cancer
in the country, but the severity of
the disease varies hugely.
Rapid treatment for men with
more aggressive forms of the dis-
ease is vital, and could be lethal if
delayed, with 12,000 men dying
each year from it.end the
needless
ProstAte
deAths
‘It is a very bleak
future for them’Worth £1,000 each, the ten puppies
that offer hope for breed in decline
Move over a bit: The puppies squeeze into their giant basket
Henry: His
new family
is worth
£10,Pictures: PHIL YEOMANS/BNPSproud dad
campaign
replaced with shotguns by the 16th
century and the red and white
markings on the gundogs helped
their owners pick them out in the
rural landscape.
Their decline can be traced to
Victorian times and the growing