wotton12000
Active member
Seminar on Estimated Breeding Values (EBV) to the South and West Wales Cavalier Club 6 February at Usk, Monmouthshire
Thought I’d post a few notes about the EBV seminar as there was some new information since the last EBV seminar in 2009.
For a more detailed explanation of EBVs go to www.cavaliercampaign.com Estimated Breeding Values page
Tom Lewis from the Animal Health Trust gave the presentation (Sarah Blott was unable to attend)
My personal comments are that the lack of sufficient health data is very depressing. Why don’t all Cavalier Club members put their efforts behind this scheme to save the breed? Why don’t the club committees urge their members to do so? Why can’t the Code of Best Practice become a rule for club members, with sanctions for those who don’t follow it?
I take the point about loss of genetic diversity with too stringent selection. However, instead of breeding from some SM affected (even if asymptomatic, or too young dogs) I feel the strategy should be to use the non show winning dogs (dogs which would normally be discarded by club breeders as not good enough to show) to widen the gene pool.
The official CMSM and Heart Testing BVA/KC schemes are going to be vital and they can’t come soon enough. If the KC refused to register litters from unscreened parents (that have reached the required minimum health standard) we would progress rapidly to creating a healthy breed. But of course the KC wont do that and the suffering will go on.
Next EBV update will be at the Cavalier Health Day on 20 November 2010 at the Royal Veterinary College.
Thought I’d post a few notes about the EBV seminar as there was some new information since the last EBV seminar in 2009.
For a more detailed explanation of EBVs go to www.cavaliercampaign.com Estimated Breeding Values page
Tom Lewis from the Animal Health Trust gave the presentation (Sarah Blott was unable to attend)
- Prevalence of SM in the current dataset they have is 45.8% (but this is not a random sample)
- Between 1990 and 1992 only 6% of the Cavalier population were used as sires. In the same period 22% of females were used.
- The effective population size (EPS) of Cavaliers is 80, not unlike many other dog breeds
- EBVs of individual dogs will be publicly available on line when the system is up and running
- The coefficients of inbreeding (COI), based on KC electronic records which start in the 1980s, will also be provided, so that you know how inbred the dog is. The lower this score is, the better.
- EBVs will change (and become more accurate) as more health data is sent in, and the system will be regularly updated.
- Labradors (hip dysplasia) will be the first breed to go on line. Although EBVs already exist for UK Cavaliers, there is insufficient data for them to be sufficiently robust. They need more MRI scan and heart testing results to be sent in.
- Because SM is a late/variable age onset condition it would be ideal if each breeding dog was MRI scanned more than once.
- Although not stated the implication was that the later you leave breeding (for MVD and CMSM) the better.
- The official BVA/KC heart testing and CMSM schemes (soon to be introduced) will help a great deal and hopefully speed up the flow of health data to the AHT.
- The danger of too rapid a selection away from one health problem and further reduction of the gene pool which could throw up another problem.
My personal comments are that the lack of sufficient health data is very depressing. Why don’t all Cavalier Club members put their efforts behind this scheme to save the breed? Why don’t the club committees urge their members to do so? Why can’t the Code of Best Practice become a rule for club members, with sanctions for those who don’t follow it?
I take the point about loss of genetic diversity with too stringent selection. However, instead of breeding from some SM affected (even if asymptomatic, or too young dogs) I feel the strategy should be to use the non show winning dogs (dogs which would normally be discarded by club breeders as not good enough to show) to widen the gene pool.
The official CMSM and Heart Testing BVA/KC schemes are going to be vital and they can’t come soon enough. If the KC refused to register litters from unscreened parents (that have reached the required minimum health standard) we would progress rapidly to creating a healthy breed. But of course the KC wont do that and the suffering will go on.
Next EBV update will be at the Cavalier Health Day on 20 November 2010 at the Royal Veterinary College.