As well as the health information below, more information is in the Useful Links and Articles section
Lynda Heron is our Breed Health Representative and Breed Council Representative email: [email protected]
KENNEL CLUB NEW BREED HEALTH STANDARD
INFORMATION SHARED BY ‘LABRADOR BREED COUNCIL – HEALTH NEWS’ ON FACEBOOK 18TH JUNE 2024 – To “discuss this with your breed communities”.
Labrador Breed Council - Health News
Labrador Breed Council - Health News
On Thursday, along with all other breed health coordinators, I received an email from the Kennel Club regarding changes to health testing in Kennel Club-registered dogs. This email made me feel uncomfortable.
I decided to share it with the health sub-committee because, for me, the message wasn't particularly clear regarding with whom I should be sharing it. I will try to upload the entire message below.
Today, the Kennel Club sent another email. In this email, it's very clear that they require me, as joint Breed Health Coordinator, to share this with stakeholders in the breed. I'm very disappointed that, as a BHC, I wasn't consulted about the contents. If the Kennel Club believes this will be well received by the breed, I think they may well be disappointed.
What I will say is that, by comparison to some breeds, our position is not as bad as theirs.
Actions I have taken since Thursday:
1. I have notified the breed health sub-committee.
2. I have arranged a meeting with the Kennel Club representatives.
3. I hope the breed health sub-committee will get a chance to discuss a plan of action before our scheduled meeting with the representatives from the Health Department at the Kennel Club on the 24th.
Of note, hip scoring and eye testing are no longer priority tests for Labrador Retrievers. The crass handling of this is another massive disappointment for those who have breed welfare at heart.
THE FOLLOWING IS THE FULL EMAIL RECEIVED FROM K.C. to LABRADOR BREED HEALTH CO-ORDINATORS WHICH WAS COPIED INTO THE ABOVE FACEBOOK POST
Dear Lynda and Joy,
We’re pleased to share with you first-hand an exciting development at The Kennel Club, our new evidence-based approach to health testing, the Health Standard.
What is the Health Standard?
The Health Standard promotes breed-specific health testing and is a clear evidence-based guide for breeders, of all levels of experience, about health testing priorities within their breed. It represents a crucial step towards The Kennel Club’s strategic aim to safeguard the future health and well-being of pedigree dogs.
The Health Standard uses a consistent and rigorous process to prioritise and categorise health tests based on scientific evidence collated from The Kennel Club’s Breed Health & Conservation Plans (BHCPs). The standard takes into account published literature, prevalence data and – in a first - genetic diversity, in order to categorise and prioritise health tests within every Kennel Club registered breed.
Within the Health Standard, whilst we strongly encourage breeders to undertake all the health tests listed for their breed, each test has been categorised into ‘essential’, ‘advisable’, or ‘other’. This breed-centric categorisation reflects the priority of the tests for the entire breed. These categories highlight which are the most important tests puppy buyers should be looking for and to advise breeders how to prioritise tests when making breeding decisions.
Here’s a brief overview of each category:
Essential tests: These are tests that breeders are strongly encouraged to undertake prior to breeding, as there is strong evidence that the condition being tested for is a significant concern in the breed, for example, it may be increasing in prevalence. Essential tests are not mandatory for registration but have been termed as such to strongly signal the importance of these tests.
Advisable tests: These tests are that breeders should consider to be of importance and are advisable to use prior to breeding – being for conditions which are still known and relevant in a breed. However, they have been categorised as advisable either due to having a lower prevalence than those in the essential category, or due to other considerations within the breed, including the need to balance health test results against genetic diversity.
Other tests: We don’t yet have sufficient data to assess the importance of these tests, however breeders/ puppy buyers should be aware of them and check their lines before breeding or purchasing a puppy.
How has the Health Standard been developed?
A rigorous process has been undertaken on a breed-by-breed basis, to establish where each test should sit for each breed. The criteria to determine this includes:
Trends in a condition over time (i.e. prevalence, breed averages, frequency of genetic mutations etc.).
Published evidence in scientific journals to support the accuracy of a test.
Population of a breed and whether the breed has limited genetic diversity.
The Kennel Club will collect and publish health results from all three categories.
It’s important to note that the Health Standard includes all testable health conditions, including both genetic (DNA tests) and screening tests such as hip scoring or eye testing.
This list is not exhaustive and, at present, only health tests that have been officially recognised by The Kennel Club have been incorporated into the Health Standard. However, the Health Standard will be regularly reviewed and is subject to change as new tests, further data, and published evidence becomes available.
Something we have not done before is incorporate the prioritisation of genetic diversity alongside health testing, and the Health Standard has been built alongside our newly revised population analyses, which have been undertaken for every registered breed.
Inbreeding concerns have been listed as a priority for several breeds, which may be due to historical breeding practices or due to small population numbers. Breeders of these breeds must follow best breeding practices and prioritise genetic diversity, in order to maintain genetic diversity within the breed. More information about the population analysis will be provided to BHCs over the next couple of months.
Below is a link to a pre-recorded presentation, which looks at the rationale behind the Health Standard and criteria which have been taken into account in its development. Please watch this video as it goes further into the methodology and meaning behind the project. We hope you have found this useful, and are sharing this with you as BHC first hand before any other Kennel Club stakeholders.
We hope that you will support us with this project, by sharing this presentation with breed representatives for your breed. This webinar will also be uploaded to the BHC portal, which can be accessed here: KC Health Team - Breed Health Co-ordinators - Home (sharepoint.com)
At present the only formal guidance we give on breed specific health testing is via our Assured Breeders Scheme’s recommendations and requirements. This process has been reviewed during the development of the Health Standard, which will replace this existing Assured Breeders Scheme guidance.
The Health Standard will give clear direction to all breeders registering puppies with The Kennel Club, at all levels of experience, and is a crucial step in The Kennel Club achieving the strategic aim to safeguard the future of pedigree dogs by addressing breed-associated health issues.
There will be a transition over to the Health Standard, to ensure that we have one clear set of advice for breeders relating to health testing prior to breeding, however the timeframes for when this transition will take place for Assured Breeders is still to be decided. We will ensure we share an update at the earliest opportunity.
What this means for your breed. At present, your breed is listed under the Assured Breeders Scheme for the following tests:
Requirements
Elbow grading
Eye screening
Hip scoring
Recommendations
DNA – prcd-PRA
The Health Standard will have a shift for your breed with respect to health testing, and under this your breed's health tests will be as follows:
Essential
DNA - CNM
DNA – EIC
DNA – MCD
DNA – prcd-PRA
DNA – SD
Elbow grading
Advisable
Eye screening
Hip scoring
Other
DNA test – HNPK
DNA test – STGD
The prioritisation and justification for these changes are covered by the rationale provided in the above webinar, which I would encourage you to review. I have also attached a breakdown of each test and category, which is attached to this email.
Given that there are some changes being implemented for the breed we would be willing to discuss this rationale with you as BHC in more detail, and as such would like to offer you an opportunity to discuss via Microsoft Teams.
If this is something your breed community would like, please reply to this email and I will look to schedule a date/ time over the coming months to do so.
Evolution of the Health Standard
Finally, it is important to note that the prioritisation of health tests is fluid and will adapt depending on new tests/ schemes available and the changes a breed population goes through time. Therefore, in the future we may introduce new relevant tests for your breed and will review new schemes/ tests on an annual basis, and will further be conducting a full re-analysis every 5 years. As we’re sure you can appreciate, this complex project requires extensive digital development and is therefore not expected to launch until the end of 2024.
However, we wanted to make you aware of the planned changes, provide as much notice as possible, and give you a chance as BHC to digest this information and discuss this with your breed communities. Your feedback will be hugely useful in this process.
We thank you again for your time and dedication to your breed and appreciate you taking the time here to understand this project. We hope that this will encourage a clearer view of the health testing needed prior to breeding a litter of puppies and provide information for breeders at all levels of experience, and are excited to embark on this with you and your breed community.
As a final note, Assured Breeders are also due to receive communications today to make them aware of the changes outlined in this email.
Should you have any further comments or queries I would be happy to address these.
This link should take you to a 28 minute video which attempts to explain the rationale https://we.tl/t-KA4d7JcfOA
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ONLINE QUESTIONS ASKED OF THE KENNEL CLUB AND SHARED ON SOCIAL MEDIA ALONGSIDE THE INITIAL POST.
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From: Hannah James <[email protected]> |
From: Health <[email protected]>
Date: Tue, 18 Jun 2024, 15:17
Subject: Health Standard
To:
Dear Breed Health Co-ordinators,
We have been made aware that some individuals are contacting health partners, wider organisations and internally Board members and committee members who are not the direct points of contact for this project, which has been made clear in all communications on how to contact us. We would also ask that you be mindful in where this information is being shared with respect to social media, as we have asked you to share this for feedback within your breed community. There will be opportunities for The Kennel Club to engage with the wider dog community later in the year, once the BHC and breed club engagement process has concluded.
We would ask for you to respect the approach we have taken in setting up this initial engagement with you before any other stakeholders, this engagement process will run until 1st August 2024. We have made it clear, repeatedly, that this is an engagement process to first discuss with BHCs and those representing breed clubs, that changes are possible based on these discussions and in line with the methodology presented, and we’ve also outlined the opportunities to submit further information including data and requests for recognition of DNA tests. As indicated clearly, finalisation of the Health Standard and the launch will not be until later this year.
Members of my team with relevant professional qualifications in this field have worked extremely hard on this project and I am extremely proud of the endeavours of this small team to progress our joint aim to make health testing accessible to a wider audience of breeders. We want to now discuss and share with you before any other Kennel Club stakeholders which should be a process of mutual respect and collaboration.
Social media is simply not the best means to do this, so please do come to us directly if you have not already done so. I ask you to be mindful that our ability to support you throughout this process will be limited if you broadly release this project outside its context and without the full supporting information, further when it is subject to change.
Yours sincerely,
Charlotte McNamara
Head of Health
The Kennel Club
DNA TESTING
Testing with Pawprints using the UK BREED COUNCIL panel of seven health issues currently costs around £100 when using the code UKBCLR22 at checkout.
It may be worth remembering at this point the change due Jan 2022 which will require dogs to be tested every 3rd generation. Most Laboratories are bringing these online as part of their offered test MACULAR CORNEAL DYSTROPHY AND STARGARDTS DISEASE
It may be worth remembering at this point the change due Jan 2022 which will require dogs to be tested every 3rd generation. Most Laboratories are bringing these online as part of their offered test MACULAR CORNEAL DYSTROPHY AND STARGARDTS DISEASE
MACULAR CORNEAL DYSTROPHY
Macular corneal dystrophy is an inherited, progressive eye disease.
Affected dogs frequently present around 4 to 6 years of age with clouding of their corneas accompanied by pinpoint white to gray spots made up of an accumulation of a carbohydrate known as glycosaminoglycan. Some affected dogs will also display growth of new blood vessels across the surface of their corneas. The disease will typically progress to compromise vision.
Genetic testing of the CHST6 gene will reliably determine whether a dog is a genetic Carrier of macular corneal dystrophy. Macular corneal dystrophy is inherited in an Autosomal Recessive manner in dogs meaning that they must receive two copies of the mutated gene (one from each parent) to develop the disease.
In general, carrier dogs do not have features of the disease but when bred with another carrier of the same Mutation, there is a risk of having affected pups. Each pup that is born to this pairing has a 25% chance of inheriting the disease and a 50% chance of inheriting one copy and being a carrier of the CHST6 gene mutation.
Reliable genetic testing is important for determining breeding practices. In order to eliminate this mutation from breeding lines and to avoid the potential of producing affected pups, breeding of known carriers to each other is not recommended. Dogs that are not carriers of the mutation have no increased risk of having affected pups.
Affected dogs frequently present around 4 to 6 years of age with clouding of their corneas accompanied by pinpoint white to gray spots made up of an accumulation of a carbohydrate known as glycosaminoglycan. Some affected dogs will also display growth of new blood vessels across the surface of their corneas. The disease will typically progress to compromise vision.
Genetic testing of the CHST6 gene will reliably determine whether a dog is a genetic Carrier of macular corneal dystrophy. Macular corneal dystrophy is inherited in an Autosomal Recessive manner in dogs meaning that they must receive two copies of the mutated gene (one from each parent) to develop the disease.
In general, carrier dogs do not have features of the disease but when bred with another carrier of the same Mutation, there is a risk of having affected pups. Each pup that is born to this pairing has a 25% chance of inheriting the disease and a 50% chance of inheriting one copy and being a carrier of the CHST6 gene mutation.
Reliable genetic testing is important for determining breeding practices. In order to eliminate this mutation from breeding lines and to avoid the potential of producing affected pups, breeding of known carriers to each other is not recommended. Dogs that are not carriers of the mutation have no increased risk of having affected pups.
STARGARDTS DISEASE
Stargardt disease is an inherited eye disease affecting dogs. It is caused by the degeneration of both Rod and cone type Photoreceptor Cells of the Retina, which are important for vision in dim and bright light, respectively.
Affected dogs present prior to 10 years of age with signs of vision loss including dilated pupils and decreased response to light. Affected dogs will have changes in reflectivity and appearance of a structure behind the retina called the Tapetum that can be observed on a veterinary eye exam.
Additionally, thinning of the retinal blood vessels can be observed on a veterinary eye exam. Dogs may not completely lose their vision during their lifetime, but will develop significant loss of vision, especially in well-lit environments.
Genetic testing of the ABCA4 gene will reliably determine whether a dog is a genetic Carrier of Stargardt disease. Stargardt Disease is inherited in an Autosomal Recessive manner in dogs meaning that they must receive two copies of the mutated gene (one from each parent) to develop the disease.
In general, carrier dogs do not have features of the disease but when bred with another carrier of the same Mutation, there is a risk of having affected pups. Each pup that is born to this pairing has a 25% chance of inheriting the disease and a 50% chance of inheriting one copy and being a carrier of the ABCA4 gene mutation.
Reliable genetic testing is important for determining breeding practices. Because symptoms do not appear until adulthood, genetic testing should be performed before breeding. In order to eliminate this mutation from breeding lines and to avoid the potential of producing affected pups, breeding of known carriers to each other is not recommended.
Dogs that are not carriers of the mutation have no increased risk of having affected pups.
An interesting read regarding early neutering and spaying
https://www.doglistener.co.uk/neutering_definitive
https://www.doglistener.co.uk/neutering_definitive
Click here for the updated BVA Eye booklet - including DNA testing