MERTK and retinal degeneration: The region harbors over 100 genes, including some that have been associated with retinal function or retinal degeneration in human and rodent models, such as ANAPC1, MERTK and NPHP1. Although we found several coding and regulatory variants in these retinal candidate genes, none of them followed appropriate segregation pattern and were present in other unaffected breeds, excluding them as candidates for the disease.