Just curious...someone told me at my vet (they were waiting in the waiting area with me) that Cavaliers in the US are less likely to develop murmurs than Cavaliers in the UK. She said that the breeding stock here was better and that while it's still a problem here, it's much less of a problem than in the UK. She had 2 Cavaliers but I have no idea where she received this information.
Is this true? Or was she misinformed? I have never heard anything about this so I was just curious...
Oh, man! "Liar! Liar! Pants on Fire!", to whoever that person may be! Sounds like some irresponsible US breeder's pitch to sell puppies.
If there
is any difference between the percentage of cavaliers with murmurs in the UK and US, it should be the other way around.
Here is why: At least the UK cavalier club has endorsed the MVD breeding protocol which an international team of cardilogists and geneticists has established to reduce the incidence of early-onset MVD in the breed. (Read about it here:
http://cavalierhealth.org/mvdprotocol.htm
In the US, the two national CKCS clubs have rejected that protocol and made up their own watered-down versions, which recently a Swedish cardiologist showed do not work to reduce MVD. So, the US breeders, who rightfully should rely upon their breed clubs to advise them about genetic health concerns in the breed, are not even being
told about this breeding protocol, much less actually following it.
And most significantly, all US cavaliers' ancestors came from the UK.
Just two years ago, at a UK cavalier club meeting, cardiologist Simon Swift stated, "In the UK and the USA, about ½ of all Cavaliers have a murmur by the time they are 5 years old."
So, at best, there is no difference between the cavaliers being produced in the two countries. But, most likely, a much higher percentage of UK breeders are following the MVD breeding protocol than US breeders, so the UK should be producing fewer litters affected by early-onset MVD than US breeders are.