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Does
your dog’s hip score change with old age?
Two
recent articles by Wood and Lakhani (Animal Health Trust) have
been published in successive issues of the Veterinary Record
(January 11th & 18th, 2003) that address this particular
question. These papers report their analyses of a large data
set of hip scores from Labradors and Gordon setters screened
over the years using the BVA/KC Hip Scoring Scheme.
Hip dysplasia is a malformation of the hip joint, first recognised
and described in the scientific literature in 1937. The BVA/KC
Hip Scoring Scheme was established in the late 60s, modified
in 1978 and is still operating successfully today with around
9,000 dogs being screened annually. It is a voluntary scheme
that relies on the submission of X-rays from dogs that are more
than one year of age. These X-rays are submitted to the BVA
where they are assessed by a panel of veterinarians who assign
numerical values to certain anatomical features from the X-ray.
The accumulated score from each hip can range from 0 to 53 and
the total score for both hips (the hip score) can therefore
range from 0 to 106.
The results of dogs’ hip scores are recorded on the dog’s
data on the KC Registration Database, printed on subsequent
Registration Certificates of the dog and any of its progeny
and published in the Breed Record Supplement. Wood and Lakhani
analysed the hips scores of around 29,000 Labrador retrievers
born between 1965 and 1999 and around 1200 Gordon setters born
before 1998.
These two recent papers are part of an on-going research programme
by the epidemiology group at the Animal Health Trust to assess
the relationship between a dog’s hip score and the hip
score of its dam, sire and other relatives, to estimate the
heritability of the hip score, work that is supported by the
Kennel Club Charitable Trust. A knowledge of such quantitative
relationships is important to establish selective breeding programmes
to reduce hip dysplasia in dogs. Malcolm Willis in the UK and
Swenson in Sweden have also undertaken similar studies. However,
none of these earlier studies took account of the age of the
dog at the time the X-ray was taken.
These two papers correct this omission and show that there is
a significant relationship between a dog’s hip score and
the age at which its hip X-ray was taken. Interestingly, their
analyses also show that the hip score depends upon the month
in which a dog is born. For the Labrador retriever data, the
breed mean hip score increases from around 15 in dogs screened
at two years of age to nearly 18 when 6 year-old dogs are screened.
The results from studying the effect of the month in which a
sdog was born show that for both the Labrador retriever and
the Gordon setter, dogs born between the months of June and
October (period 1) have a significantly lower mean hip score
compared to dogs born between November and May (period 2). The
Labrador data show that the hip score of dogs born in period
2 would be expected to be 1.5 units higher than that of dogs
born in period 1; in the Gordon setter dogs born in period 2
would be expected to be between 4 and 5 units higher than dogs
born in period 1. The difference in these two figures probably
reflects the fact that the Gordon setter breed mean hip score
is higher than that in the Labrador.
Complex
What
are the explanations for these observations? We have known
for some time that hip dysplasia may be affected by a combination
of genetic and environmental factors. Some of these age-related
effects could well be reflecting the complex environmental
effects on hip dysplasia. The fact that there is a significant
relationship between the breed mean hip score and the age
of screening is perhaps not too surprising because much of
the evaluation of X-rays undertaken by the BVA is derived
from scoring secondary arthritic changes which might be expected
to worsen with age. The dependence on the month of birth is
also interesting.
Other workers, for example Hanssen in Norway, have reported
similar effects of the month of birth on hip scores in several
breeds. The difference may possibly reflect the fact that
puppies born during the winter months do not have the same
opportunity to get the regular daily exercise needed to develop
muscular strength and elasticity and may have a greater chance
of damaging their hip joints when running on hard or frozen
ground.
The results in these two papers are clearly interesting and
academics interested in investigating canine hip dysplasia
will now be able to build in these new age variables into
their models when attempting to estimate values of heritability
and the dependence of progeny hip scores on those of the sire
and dam. However, will they be amazingly significant to the
dog breeder who is attempting to responsibly use the hip scoring
scheme to reduce the problem of hip dysplasia within a breed.
Well these new observations do not really alter the bottom
line for the breeder. The advice remains the same. To improve
selective breeding the most important factor remains the genetic
factor. The results of studies over the years have demonstrated
the benefits of breeding from dogs with low hip scores for
the reduction of hip scores and hip dysplasia. Breeders are
strongly encouraged to have all potential breeding stock hip
scored in those breeds where hip dysplasia is known to be
a problem, and, wherever possible, breed low scoring dogs
to low scoring bitches. That way the breed mean average hip
score will fall over a period of time. As important as hip
scoring is in these breeds, breeders should never forget that
they are breeding dogs of a particular type and temperament
and their breeding choices should always reflect this.
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