FOLLOWING A series of high-level meetings with civil servants from England, Wales and Scotland, as well as the major animal (and human) charities with an interest, plus representatives of the veterinary profession, the Kennel Club’s long-term strategy was explained and discussed this week.
This strategy, which has been in development since well before the programme Pedigree Dogs Exposed was aired, has and set out detailed plans to improve the health of pedigree dogs over the next five to ten years. It was also explained at the meetings that there is no ‘short-term fix’ and if all the strands of the strategy are to be brought together effectively, it is not a programme that can be rushed.
There are a number of key elements which have to be implemented together for the maximum effect, including the further development of the Accredited Breeders Scheme in conjunction with the independent UK Accreditation Service (UKAS), systematic research into every aspect of the health and welfare of pedigree dogs, the ongoing education of owners, breeders and judges, the continuing development and amendment to breed standards where necessary and a major overhaul of the Kennel Club’s Registration Database, which will enable breeders to have access to much more information about Heritabilities, Genetic Correlations and Estimated Breeding Values, through what is being called a ‘Mate Select Programme’.
In fact, not only is the Kennel Club taking on board much of what Professor Bateson has recommended, but also it is going further in those areas where it believes the greatest and most effective progress will be made.
Click image for larger image
Caroline Kisko, Bill Lambert and Jeff Sampson were the key speakers at these meetings, and they stressed the importance of the work already completed and indicated those areas where they felt progress could best be made.
Our Dogs was invited to the meeting attended by senior veterinary surgeons, possibly one of the most interesting: as veterinary surgeons in practice will be asked to make a significant contribution and become much more involved in the process of collecting information, which will be collated and added to the expanded database.
There were many questions, but the general feeling was that the profession was anxious to participate, even though it was likely that much more input would be required by all members of the profession at surgery level.
The comparison was made very well with the way in which people renew their road tax. When you were first able to renew on line you had to say that you had an MOT and insurance certificate: these days the garages and the insurance companies are hooked up to DVLA direct, so if you try to renew without having insurance or MOT certificate your application is rejected automatically. Clearly such a reporting system for pedigree dogs will be much more complicated, but the principle is the same. It will include health test results and deaths of specific dogs and their breed, as well as include any new health issue which is discovered.
Holding Pen
Clarges Street intends to create a ‘Holding Pen’ for information and data, which it will receive from vets, charities and insurance companies’ claims experience, as well as from breed club health schemes.
Click image for larger image
The ‘Holding Pen’ will be the Evaluation Unit where data is filtered, so only that which is relevant is stored on the expanded database. This already has all the details of each dog’s pedigree, (usually going back many generations) but in the future will provide more detailed information not just on its current health status but how closely it is bred, and its Estimated Breeding Value (EBV)*. Much has been written recently about the inbreeding co-efficient of a particular mating: the EBV is a broader based but (in the long term) a more reliable indicator of genetic health
Also being fed into the new database will be the results of peer-reviewed research from the Kennel Club’s own genetic research centre, and from other established and accredited centres around the world, the results of official DNA tests and other tests such as those for eyes, elbows and hips.
Clearly the Kennel Club, although not against the idea of an Independent Advisory Council as outlined in the Bateson Report, is consciously setting out its own stall with its new tripartite Dog Health Group, to be chaired by Professor Sheila Crispin, a former President of the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons, which it hopes will make the establishment of another group unnecessary. As the KC pointed out at these meetings, such an additional group will be expensive – who will be prepared to fund it?
The Bateson report recognised that the Accredited Breeder Scheme is the closest model to what the Report concluded was the ideal and, although many of the recommendations are already in place or being implemented there is still some way to go. This view accords with many of the criticisms levelled at the scheme by Our Dogs readers, however the KC has already taken further steps and is working towards independent UKAS accreditation. UKAS is the highest level of accreditation in Britain. Most people have never heard of it, but it is the sole national accreditation body recognised by the British government to assess, against internationally agreed standards, organisations that provide certification, testing and inspection and calibration services.
Accreditation by UKAS demonstrates the competence, impartiality and performance capability of these evaluators. It is expensive but if you have it, no one can accuse you of achieving any but the highest standards. And high standards are what this exercise is about.
Ronnie Irving, Chairman of the Kennel Club told Our Dogs, ‘I am absolutely determined that no one will be able say that we have not done everything we can within the law and within our organisation to tackle health and welfare in dogs’.
Clarges Street has been working overtime since the Bateson Report was published and although it has responded specifically to its recommendations in a letter to members as Our Dogs reported last week (the full text of the letter is available free online – just click through to ‘News’ and then ‘Bateson Report’).
* The Estimated Breeding Value (EBV) predicts the breeding potential of an individual for both inferior and superior traits. It is an established and systematic way of combining available performance information on the individual and of its relatives and progeny. It is used in cattle and other farm animals to ensure that the breeder selectively breeding from stock knows the probably outcome of a particular mating.
Send your opinion of this story below
