The second of the recommended checks is a DNA test for prcd-PRA. PRA (Progressive Retinal Atrophy) refers to a group of diseases that causes cells in the retina at the back of the eye to degenerate and die, even though the cells seem to develop normally early in life. "prcd" stands for progressive rod-cone degeneration, a type of PRA. The rod cells operate in low light levels and are the first to lose normal function. Night blindness results. Then the “cone” cells gradually lose their normal function in full light situations. Most affected dogs will eventually be blind. At the moment there is no treatment, or cure, for PRA.
While the eye certificate scheme checks for PRA, it does not tell you whether or not the dog carries a mutant copy of the PRCD gene. Two dogs could be mated that both pass their eye certificate but then had puppies that were PRA affected. The cause of this was that both dogs were carriers of the gene, so while neither was affected, because they both carried a mutant gene, some of the puppies ended up with both and therefore were affected.
I could not imagine anything more horrible than your dog going blind and with this test being well established and recommended by the Kennel Club, it was a no brainer for me. If both parents are tested as being clear (neither carries a mutant gene) then all the puppies will be clear by parentage and will never delevlop prcd-PRA. The DNA tests show the dog as being either Clear/Normal, Carrier (one copy of the mutant gene) or Affected (both copies mutant). The disease is inherited as a recessive trait (a mutant gene must be inherited from each parent to cause the disease in the offspring. Possible matings are :
Clear x Clear = 100% clear offspring
Clear x Carrier = 50% clear, 50% carriers
Carrier x Carrier = 25% clear, 25% affected, 50% carriers
Carrier x Affected = 50% carriers, 50% affected
Affected x Affected = 100% affected
Affected x Clear = 100% carriers
So, it is perfectly acceptable to mate a carrier to a clear, this combination still ensures that all offspring will never develop prcd-PRA (they may be carriers though so would need to be tested before breeding from). Even a mating between an affected and a clear will never produce any affected pups - but they all will be carriers. Once these carriers subsequently mate with a clear, you are half the way there to eradicating any signs of the disease from the line - which shows 1/ How important testing is and 2/ How an affected or carrier status does not mean that the dog can't be bred from.
I used a company in the US (http://www.optigen.com/opt9_test_prcd_pra.html) to do the test, going through a UK 20/20 clinic that organise the posting of the blood samples and give you a 25% discount on the price. I've also used this place in the UK for other DNA tests and they do the test as well (http://www.laboklin.co.uk/laboklin/showGeneticTest.jsp?testID=8094). I didn't know about this place at the time and definitely would have used them if I had known. You get your vet to collect a blood sample and send it off. I got Moy vets to take the sample while I was there getting the hips and elbow x-rays.
Costs = £95 test, £9 20/20 clinc, £7 postage, total £111
The results of the tests are recorded on the Kennel Club database.
As of today, I'm still waiting to hear back the results of Jess' test. Her father was clear and her mum was either clear or a carrier so jess will either be a clear or a carrier.
Sunday 28 February 2010
Elbow scoring
So now we're moving on to "recommended" checks with Elbow scoring being one of them. Jess' mum was never elbow scored and there are certainly lots of dogs out there that haven't been, but during my initial research for stud dogs I noticed that most of them had been. Like the other tests that I have gone on to do, I figured that I should be doing everything I possibly can to make sure that Jess is in perfect health and condition to breed from - the last thing I would want is to hand over puppies to new owners that go on to develop problems - especially ones that may have been avoided by doing more tests. Its a far newer scheme than the hip scoring and not as detailed - scores simply range from 0 to 3, rather than 56 for the hips. That saying, the elbow is a far simpler joint ! Like the hips, what is being checked for is Elbow Dysplasia (ED) or, abnormal development of the elbow. The scoring is simply 0 - Normal, 1 - Mild ED, 2 - Moderate ED, 3- Severe ED. Unlike hips where the scores are added together to represent a single figure, for the elbows, the worse score of the two results are taken and used, eg results of 1/2 would result in a score of 2. The recommendation from the BVA is that dogs with a grade of 2 or 3 should not be used for breeding.
There seems to be quite differing opinions on whether or not elbow scoring is important. Some people have had dogs graded 0/3 yet have spent their life as working dogs with no effect. Also, environmental affects (falls, accidents etc..) can have a considerable impact on the elbows meaning that a higher score may not affect puppies at all because the problem was not hereditary.
I got the elbows scored at the same time as the hips, at Moy Vets, and Jess' result was 0/1. Costs were mentioned in an earlier post. Knowing Jess had 0/1 it meant that it was important to me to ensure that the stud dog I used had an elbow score of 0/0 and even better to have a history of producing pups with 0/0 elbows.
The hips, eye certificate and elbow results are all published in the KC database.
There seems to be quite differing opinions on whether or not elbow scoring is important. Some people have had dogs graded 0/3 yet have spent their life as working dogs with no effect. Also, environmental affects (falls, accidents etc..) can have a considerable impact on the elbows meaning that a higher score may not affect puppies at all because the problem was not hereditary.
I got the elbows scored at the same time as the hips, at Moy Vets, and Jess' result was 0/1. Costs were mentioned in an earlier post. Knowing Jess had 0/1 it meant that it was important to me to ensure that the stud dog I used had an elbow score of 0/0 and even better to have a history of producing pups with 0/0 elbows.
The hips, eye certificate and elbow results are all published in the KC database.
Eye certificates
The other mandatory test, apart from hip scoring is getting an eye certificate. An eye certificate can be done at any time but is only valid for 12 months, so needs to be close to the time of breeding. The scheme is also run by the KC and the BVA and is a means of identifying inherited and non-inherited ocular conditions in dogs.
See here for a description of the hereditary eye diseases in dogs http://www.bva.co.uk/public/documents/Eye_Leaflet.pdf
The KC maintains a current list of examiners who can issue certificates (http://www.thekennelclub.org.uk/item/2645) and you simply find the one nearest to you and make an appointment. The check takes about 10-15 minutes after which you get a certificate showing whether or not affected or unaffected for the problems being tested for.
I went along to the examiner closest to me and Jess passed all checks with flying colours :) Cost £45
See here for a description of the hereditary eye diseases in dogs http://www.bva.co.uk/public/documents/Eye_Leaflet.pdf
The KC maintains a current list of examiners who can issue certificates (http://www.thekennelclub.org.uk/item/2645) and you simply find the one nearest to you and make an appointment. The check takes about 10-15 minutes after which you get a certificate showing whether or not affected or unaffected for the problems being tested for.
I went along to the examiner closest to me and Jess passed all checks with flying colours :) Cost £45
Costs
So first up hip scoring which also started the first drain on funds. It's amazing how much it all starts to add up and I'm sure a lot of people (like myself) won't appreciate just how expensive breeding can be. For my own record (and for the interest of others) I am keeping a detailed lists of all the costs involved and will keep a running total on my blog (see "Breeding costs so far..." in the right hand side bar)
I got Jess' elbows done at the same time as her hips (next post will cover elbows) so the combined costs were Moy Vets (£80 hip xrays, £80 elbow xrays, £21 consultation), BVA (£80 for combined hips and elbow), Petrol £60 = £321.19
I got Jess' elbows done at the same time as her hips (next post will cover elbows) so the combined costs were Moy Vets (£80 hip xrays, £80 elbow xrays, £21 consultation), BVA (£80 for combined hips and elbow), Petrol £60 = £321.19
Health testing - Hip scoring
First things first, not much point in investing time and effort in to looking for a stud dog if your own is not suitable to breed from. The UK Kennel Club (KC) lists the health test requirements for a labrador as Hip scoring and Eye testing. Recommended testing is Elbow grading and DNA testing for PRA (Progressive Retinal Atrophy)
So hip scoring and eye tests an absolute minimum. No responsible stud dog owner would even let the mating take place until these had been done and had come back satisfactory. I'll cover eyes, elbows and PRA in a later post but for now ..
Hip Scoring :
Hip dysplasia (HD) is a common inherited orthopedic problem of dogs (and a wide number of other mammals). Dysplasia means "abnormal growth" which can lead to excessive wear and tear of the hip, leading to osteoarthritis (OA), osteoarthrosis or degenerative joint disease (DJD). The current scheme of hip scoring was developed 40 years ago by the KC and the BVA (British Veterinary Association http://www.bva.co.uk/default.aspx) to assess the degree of hip deformity using x-rays. The x-rays are taken of your dogs hips, either under sedative or general anesthetic, and are then submitted to the BVA where they are "scored". The hip score is the sum of the points accrued for each of nine radiographic features in each hip joint. The lower the score the less the degree of HD present. The minimum (best) score for each hip is zero and the maximum (worst) is 53, giving a range for the total score of 0 to 106.
The labrador retriever "breed mean score" as of 1 Nov 2009 was 15, with a total of nearly 70,000 tested. So, for breeding purposes you ideally want both dogs to have a lower hip score than 15, with the lowest the better !
You can get the x-rays taken at any vets, who will then submit them to the BVA on your behalf. Based on the recommendation from a number of people and the fact that by now I did not have a lot of time to wait until I started looking for a stud dog, I decided to make a 400 mile round trip down to see Mark Lingard at Moy Vets (http://www.moyfarmvets.co.uk/, 10 miles from Blackpool). Mark used to be on the panel and has a diploma in veterinary radiology so he definitely knows his stuff ! He will go over the x-rays with you, explaining the whole scoring process and go through each of the nine points and tell you at the end what he believes the score will be (so you've got a good idea of the outcome before waiting 3-4 weeks for the official results) and he's rarely wrong :)
Once the hip scores have been done, the results are recorded on the Kennel Club database and will be shown on the pups registration certificates.
As Mark predicted, Jess came back with perfect 0/0 hips :D Still lots more to go though....
So hip scoring and eye tests an absolute minimum. No responsible stud dog owner would even let the mating take place until these had been done and had come back satisfactory. I'll cover eyes, elbows and PRA in a later post but for now ..
Hip Scoring :
Hip dysplasia (HD) is a common inherited orthopedic problem of dogs (and a wide number of other mammals). Dysplasia means "abnormal growth" which can lead to excessive wear and tear of the hip, leading to osteoarthritis (OA), osteoarthrosis or degenerative joint disease (DJD). The current scheme of hip scoring was developed 40 years ago by the KC and the BVA (British Veterinary Association http://www.bva.co.uk/default.aspx) to assess the degree of hip deformity using x-rays. The x-rays are taken of your dogs hips, either under sedative or general anesthetic, and are then submitted to the BVA where they are "scored". The hip score is the sum of the points accrued for each of nine radiographic features in each hip joint. The lower the score the less the degree of HD present. The minimum (best) score for each hip is zero and the maximum (worst) is 53, giving a range for the total score of 0 to 106.
The labrador retriever "breed mean score" as of 1 Nov 2009 was 15, with a total of nearly 70,000 tested. So, for breeding purposes you ideally want both dogs to have a lower hip score than 15, with the lowest the better !
You can get the x-rays taken at any vets, who will then submit them to the BVA on your behalf. Based on the recommendation from a number of people and the fact that by now I did not have a lot of time to wait until I started looking for a stud dog, I decided to make a 400 mile round trip down to see Mark Lingard at Moy Vets (http://www.moyfarmvets.co.uk/, 10 miles from Blackpool). Mark used to be on the panel and has a diploma in veterinary radiology so he definitely knows his stuff ! He will go over the x-rays with you, explaining the whole scoring process and go through each of the nine points and tell you at the end what he believes the score will be (so you've got a good idea of the outcome before waiting 3-4 weeks for the official results) and he's rarely wrong :)
Once the hip scores have been done, the results are recorded on the Kennel Club database and will be shown on the pups registration certificates.
As Mark predicted, Jess came back with perfect 0/0 hips :D Still lots more to go though....
Saturday 27 February 2010
Blogging and Breeding (Labrador Retrievers)
This is two firsts for me
1/ My first foray into the world of blogging
2/ My first experience of breeding dogs
While this is not going to be a journalistic masterpiece (becuase I'm incapable of producing such things), I thought it would be a good way of keeping track of the whole process of breeding, from first deciding to breed to selecting a stud, mating, pregnancy and whelping. It may help others who are considering doing the same as well as provide me with a memory of the whole experience. So...bear with me, and stay tuned :)
1/ My first foray into the world of blogging
2/ My first experience of breeding dogs
While this is not going to be a journalistic masterpiece (becuase I'm incapable of producing such things), I thought it would be a good way of keeping track of the whole process of breeding, from first deciding to breed to selecting a stud, mating, pregnancy and whelping. It may help others who are considering doing the same as well as provide me with a memory of the whole experience. So...bear with me, and stay tuned :)
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