defined by having white skin/fur/feathers/scales and pink eyes,
whilst common in many mammals and birds, there never has been or will be an albino horse, it appears that a true albino horse or I should say foal would be dead at birth, a true 'white' horse would already be dead as well, the genes associated for a pure white horse contain fatal flaws, known as
Lethal White Syndrome, that cause white foals to either be born dead or die
within the first day - usually much less time than that, it sounds pretty dire, from the Reddit thread,
LWS can also be carried way back in the lineage of the
horses, not strictly limited to the Frame Overo cross (they're just known
carriers). As thirdpeppermint said, conscious breeders should test for the gene
to make sure they're not accidentally breeding it into their lines. Also, the
foals aren't really missing a large section of digestion tract. They do
commonly have impaired colon development (so the colon may be severely narrowed
or even closed off in places). The mark of this disease is the missing myenteric
plexus from the ileum caudally. The myenteric plexus is part of the enteric
nervous system in the GI responsible for peristalsis, meaning there's no
movement of ingesta through the GI tract, resulting in colic-y clinical signs
and eventual death.
well I never knew that, but there it is, no true pink eyed albino horses, ever.
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