Page 81 - The Pembroke & Cardigan Welsh Corgi Worldwide Magazine

each breed on the BVA’s website. Breeding from
dogs scoring more than 15 (total score for both
joints > 30) is undesirable.

In Switzerland the numerical score is not
released to the public. For the owner the score
is transformed into a FCI degree. It is important
to understand that each of the 3 scoring
schemes can be used for selecting breed dogs
against CHD. The reliability of the final score
depends heavily on the skills of the scrutineers.
Scrutineers must be experts and their gradings
must be undisputed, otherwise scores may
differ markedly from reality, and may be stated
better than one would expect.

The impact of the data on the quality of the
offsprings’ hip joints lies mainly in the breeders’
hands and their ability to understand and accept
the results and to adhere to the recommendations
of the geneticists. These recommend not to use
dysplastic dogs for breeding. This implies that
even dogs with a hip score C or mild degree elimination of carriers from the breeding stock.
of CHD should not be used. A concept which By accepting most dogs within a population for
makes sense when considering that controlling breeding no improvement of hip conformation
any disease of unclear heredity is based on the can be achieved.

REFERENCES:

• Flückiger M: Scoring radiographs for canine Hip Dysplasia - The big three organisations in the world.

• Karbe GT et al.: Radiographic Hip Joint Phenotype of the Pembroke Welsh Corgi. Vet Surg 41:10 2012

• Lust G: An overview of the pathogenesis of canine hip dysplasia. J Am Vet Med Ass 210- 10:1443, 1997.
• Madsen JS: The joint capsule and joint laxity in dogs with hip dysplasia. J Am Vet Med Ass 210-10:1463, 1997.

• Powers MY, Karbe GT, Gregor TP, et al. Relationship of official OFA hip scoring to PennHIP distraction index in a
sample of 439 dogs. J Am Vet Med Assoc. 2010;237:532–541.

• Slocum B & Devine Slocum T: Hip: Diagnostic Tests. In Bojrab MI, Ellison GW, Slocum B, editors: Current Techniques
in Small Animal Surgery, Philadelphia, 1998, WB Saunders, pp 1127-1145.

• Smith GK, Biery ON, Gregor TP: New concepts of coxofemoral joint stability and the development of a clinical stress-
radiographic method for quantitating hip joint laxity in the dog. J Am Vet Med Ass 196:59- 70,1990.

• Smith GK, Gregor TP, Rhodes WH, et al.: Coxofemoral joint laxity from distraction radiography and its
contemporaneous and prospective correlation with laxity, subjective score, and evidence for degenerative joint
disease from conventional hip-extended radiography in dogs. Am J Vet Res 54: 1021, 1993.
• OFA homepage: www.ofa.org

• Acknowledgement to dr. Alessandro Piras for contributing to parts of the notes.

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