Hip Dysplasia Policy
October 2015
THE GRIFFON BRUXELLOIS CLUB OF VICTORIA
POLICY FOR HIP DYSPLASIA TESTING AND SUITABILITY FOR BREEDING
The Club Committee recommends that all breeding animals be radiographed for Hip Dysplasia (HD) and the X-ray be submitted to the AVA/ANKC Hip Dysplasia Scheme or a private Veterinary Radiologist Specialist, for scoring.
Currently the requirement is for an extended ventro-dorsal (VD) pelvic view radiograph done while the dog or bitch is under a general anaesthetic. The dog or bitch must be 12 months of age or older.
Hip Dysplasia has a high degree of heritability and the advice from the Australian AVA/ANKC panel of HD readers is to use dogs and bitches for breeding that have normal hips or mild departures from normal. If none of these dogs or bitches are available then dogs or bitches whose highest scoring hip is less than half the breed average score should be used. Having individuals with normal hips or mild departures from normal would be rare in Australia where the breed average score is currently 27.4. This breed average score is indicative of moderate to marked hip dysplasia where arthritis is already prominent OR severe hip dysplasia before arthritic change is evident. It is apparent from this average that the health of our Griffon’s hips is unsatisfactory and why our Club is recommending testing of all breeding stock and using these scores to breed responsibly without adversely diminishing our gene pool. So, if a dog with normal (score equal to 0) or near normal hips (score between 1 and 4) is unavailable, then dogs or bitches whose highest scoring hip is less than half the breed average score should be used.
If dogs are used for breeding with scores well below the breed average then it is likely puppies they produce will be well below the breed average and the hip status of the breed will improve. If we use dogs with a breed average result or those with a worse than breed average result then we would not expect to see any improvement.
Accordingly, the Club recommends that individuals, whose highest scoring hip is no more than a score of 13, should be used for breeding. At the very least, if a breeder is using a dog or bitch with an average score or a score above average, then the other dog or bitch should have a score below the average by at least the same margin as the other is above.
For example, a potential dam may have a hip score of 30 (score of 15 per hip). We would recommend that she be bred with a dog with a score of at least 24 but ideally even lower. In this way we should see an improvement in the health of our Griffon’s hips without restricting the potential gene pool too much and then seeing the incidence of other genetic diseases escalate.
For more information regarding Hip Dysplasia, how radiographs are done and explanation of how the score is calculated, go to the Club’s website
http://www.griffonclubvic.com/ask-dr-iainhip-dysplasia-testing.asp
Contact Details
President: Mrs Colleen De Haan [email protected]
Secretary -Mrs Robin Simpson [email protected]
Puppy enquiries - Beth Canavan [email protected]
0490085215