Some Current Data

Some Current Data . . .

Worldwide the Leonberger population is currently estimated to be around 40,000.

Leonbergers have a Worldwide Pedigree Database listing over 150.000 pedigrees, data that stretches back to 1880.

In the database we can easily see the pedigree of the dog, siblings, offspring and health test results of tests performed. We can also see Mean-Kinship and Coefficient of Inbreeding calculations.

This comprehensive pedigree database has made it possible for in-depth studies of the Population to be performed for the breed:

Katie Minor - University of Minnesota
Anna Letko - University of Bern
Mean Kinship calculations Pieter Oliehoek - DOGS GLOBAL

Alarmingly though we can also see that genetically it represents only 5.83 founders. The actual contribution comes from the genetic equivalent of less than 2 individuals.

Across all generations, the average Leonberger today is more closely related than a brother sister breeding would be.

A brother to sister mating would normally produce a Coefficient of Inbreeding of 25%.
The average Leonberger today has a COI of 30%.

The recent recalculation of Mean Kinship indicates that diversity continues to decrease exponentially. Both Coefficients of Inbreeding and Mean Kinship show a clear and steady increase, further narrowing the diversity of the breed.

See research article

The graph shows the average inbreeding and kinship increasing over time to about 30% in the current population.