Hip dysplasia breeding schemes & PennHIP - Page 1

Hip dysplasia breeding schemes and PennHIP
Mike Guilliard MA VetMB CertSAO MRCVS
Nantwich Veterinary Hospital (UK)


Canine hip dysplasia (CHD) is a common cause of pelvic limb lameness and exercise intolerance. The dictionary definition of dysplasia is abnormal growth or development and as such CHD is a developmental condition and is not congenital. CHD is prevalent in almost all breeds and must be seen as a result of breeding programmes selected to accentuate characteristics that are desirable for the various breed standards. Breeds such as the racing Greyhound, where the selection process is towards racing performance, have normal hips and do not develop the osteoarthritis (OA) of CHD.

It has long since been known that CHD is an inherited condition and as such, by identifying the carriers, it should be possible to decrease its prevalence and severity. As the condition is polygenic screening for specific genes is not yet a possibility and so identification of carriers is by phenotype and not genotype. Basically all hip improvement schemes attempt to predict the likelihood of the development of hip OA. The standard British Veterinary Association/Kennel Club (BVA/KC) hip scheme selects as its phenotype, changes to the hip joints as seen on a hip-extended radiograph with various changes to the joint being scored as to their severity. These changes fall into three categories that are basically subluxation, joint remodelling and osteoarthritis. Similar schemes include the OFA scheme of the USA, the FCI scheme of Europe and the German SV a stamp scheme.

Continued here: http://www.videxgsd.com/HD_breeding_schemes_PennHIP.htm

the problem with Pennhip is its cost prohibitive and frankly hardly anyone does it hence there are no pedigrees with depth of Pennhip for them to say its working I doubt they even have 10k GSD's in their database the rate of EX in GSD last year was over 8 percent  a sizable improvement

In 1994, I took my 1 year old Shepherd for OFA prelims and the vet talked me into a PennHip.  I'll spare you the long sad story but it was done and they told me that he was in the top 10% and then something went on and they said it had to be redone.

The second time, my dog was injured and they told me that his one side was really loose and he was now in the bottom 10%.

Yeah, I guess it was loose after forcing the ball out of the socket with their distractor!  He was so freaked out he threw up on his chest and he could not sit down for a week.  The PennHip practitioner never returned my phone calls.

Luckily, he got an OFA Good on his prelim and a Fair at two years.  He lived to be 13+ and he never developed dysplasia.  The area that was injured did get a bit of arthritis, but not too bad and only in his old age.

I called every orthopedic vet in California and found out that there were other dogs who had been injured.  Dr Corely at OFA had a lot of information on that. and I was truly shocked.

Well, it was a long time ago.  But, I would never let someone give my dog anasthesia. balance him on his spine and put the distractor between his legs (which are straight up) and apply an unknown and uncontrolled amount of pressure, with no guage of the amount of force applied.

He was injured precisely because his hips were so very tight.

Good luck,

Michele

It has long since been known that CHD is an inherited condition

Has that actually been proven yet?  To the best of my knowledge, it's still a theory.  I still won't be from parents that weren't OFA'd, but I don't believe it's been proven that CHD is genetic.

uh yeah its widely accepted that hip dysplasia is strictly genetic 

It's also widely accepted that it can be from environment and nutrition. 

Greatly modified by environment and nutrition, but doubtfully caused by it.

not in anyway caused by enviroment, its proven the greater the phenotype the lower the rate of dysplasia not to mention unilateral dysplasia is a good argument against enviromental  causes,certain breeds are prone to a side predilection when it comes to unilateral dysplasia. some breeds prone to left others prone to right  ,enviroment can modify the expression of the disease but the are no known enviromental causes or cures and they have identifed a genetic marker in PWD via the Georgie project that indicates sublaxation one for the right one for the left

If I recall correctly from the AVMA scientific abstracts that I read, CHD was found to be "moderately heritable" and this is evidenced by the fact that two "normal" dogs can produce a dysplastic dog and vice versa.  Nevertheless, the heritability of CHD has been proven and as such should not be dismissed as merely environmental.

I have had two dogs checked by PennHIP and it is absolutely the only method I would choose for my own dogs even though it cost me about $400 each and I had to drive more than 3 hours to find the closest PennHIP vet - such is the value of the method to me. 

I wrote a detailed article on PennHIP vs OFA techniques for Schutzhund USA magazine maybe two years ago.  If anyone wants a copy of that article send me a PM and I will be happy to share it. 

I hope that the PennHIP method will continue to grow in popularity and that they will finally produce an on-line searchable database which is badly needed. 

This is an issue near and dear to my heart as I have had two GSD's now retired from the sport due to dysplasia. 

Yvette