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| Better late than never...eye testing now recommended for Neapolitan Mastiffs |
The Kennel Club has recently added 29 new breed health test recommendations and requirements for dogs bred under the Accredited Breeder Scheme - and made some changes to some existing requirements/recommendations.
The list includes:
DACHSHUND (MINIATURE WIRE-HAIRED
Add requirement – DNA test for PRA cord 1.
This good to see - and an indication of the Dachshund Breed Council's growing commitment to health. Now, let's just stop the weighing of the mini-dax at UK shows and introduce some other measure that does not encourage exhibitor to withhold food or water from their dogs to ensure they make the desired weight.
GLEN OF IMAAL TERRIER
Add requirement – DNA test for GPRA-crd3.
Change from a requirement to a recommendation – eye testing.
Could any Glen breeders explain why eye testing has been downgraded to a recommendation rather than a requirement - especially when Peter Bedford states expressly on the Club website that "the presence of the [crd3] test does not mean that regular eye examination should stop...As a breed you have already developed the discipline of eye examination and you should continue to be certain that another problem does not become entrenched within the breed. Without the crd 3 test the Glen was in a mess, but the feeling of euphoria that the test`s advent has created should not allow common sense to be thrown out with the bathwater. Eye examination is essential to ensure that our delightful breed remains free from other potential ocular disease."
NEAPOLITAN MASTIFF
Add recommendation – hip scoring.
Add recommendation – eye testing.
Add recommendation – seek breed club advice on heart testing.
And about time too, is all I can say... And hopefully these tests will be mandatory before long for the Neapolitan. Only two NMs were hip-scored in the whole of the UK last year; only 36 have ever been hip-scored and the five-year breed mean is a whopping 45, meaning that many breeders are continuing to breed from untested stock that very likely have dreadful hips. Mastino eyes are often poor, too (cherry eye/entropion/ectroprion) and heart problems are the reason for the very high number of young deaths in the breed.
PUG
Add recommendation – seek breed council advice on hemivertebrae checking.
Pug Breed Council? Absolutely no web presence as far as I can find, so not sure how anyone is supposed to check with them. And as for the UK Pug Dog Club - there is no mention there whatsoever of hemivertebrae - other than a tiny snippet of a legacy document that pops up if you do a search on the site for hemivertebrae. This indicates that the club used to advise that dogs with slipping patella, cleft palate, entropion, hip dysplasia and hemivertebra should not be bred from. Sadly, that advice has now been removed.
SPANIEL (CLUMBER)
Add recommendation – eye testing.
This is added to hip-scoring (mandatory) and an existing recommendation to DNA test for PDP1. I note that the Clumber Spaniel Club says: "The results of KC/BVA eye tests for Clumber Spaniels are not published therefore the Club has established a voluntary database for the results". And how many dogs are on that database? Nine. (Five of them from one kennel - Michelmess - who should be congratulated for their openness despite two of their dogs have less than perfect results).
Perhaps now that eye-testing is officially recommended for ABS breeders, the results will be listed on the KC Health Test Finder?
SPANIEL (ENGLISH SPRINGER)
Add requirement – DNA test for PRA cord 1.
Add recommendation – DNA test for PFK.
Add recommendation – bitches under 20 months not to produce a litter.
Upgrade from a recommendation to a requirement – gonioscopy testing.
Upgrade from a recommendation to a requirement – DNA test for fucosidosis.
A sign of how health conscious Springer breeders are - or of the increasing number of health concerns in the breed? Or perhaps both? Any Springer owners want to comment?
TIBETAN TERRIER
Add requirement – DNA test for NCL.
Pleased to see this, knowing some of the back story of a pet owner of Tibetan Terriers who lobbied both the breed club and the Kennel Club to get this DNA test added as a requirement.
The updated list of all requirements and recommendations for the Accredited Breeder Scheme can be found at:
http://www.thekennelclub.org.uk/download/1100/abshealthreqs.pdf