UK news - “Innate Health Test” for dogs launched by Parliamentary Committee

[DogsAndTheMob]

This is in Britain so is unlikely to Immediately impact Australian breeders.
 

From the press release:

“The IHA Tool was developed in partnership with PetProov* and is based on research from the Royal Veterinary College. The Tool is a 10-point checklist intended to assist dog breeders, licensing officers and prospective dog owners to carry out a visual check of any dog in assessing their innate health characteristics. The 10 criteria aim to capture the most common and serious extreme conformations in dogs today with an overall aim of achieving physically healthier dogs. The criteria may change over time in response to new evidence.”

 

https://www.bsava.com/article/new-innate-health-tool-available-to-assess-dogs-suitability-to-breed/

[DogsAndTheMob]

Looking at comments, people are most disturbed by the inclusion of Merle as a health problem, pointing out that homozygous Merle is is problematic but heterozygous Merle usually isn’t. I wonder why the assessment focuses on Merle and ignores the problems associated with extreme white and dilute blue. I’m also not sure why it recommends visual identification of Merle, giving a description that could easily lead to confusion about roan, when a DNA test is available.

 

i’m also not sure whey it targets natural bobtails but doesn’t  mention screw tails.

 

From a big picture point of view, the wording implies that dogs that pass the assessment are suitable for breeding, without discussion of the need for hip, elbow, eye and cardiac testing, DNA testing or other breed-specific testing.

Edited 1 hour ago by DogsAndTheMob