Chow Health - 2005 OFA Statistical Report

2005 CCCI Health Database Report

There are currently 10,423 individual chows recorded in the CCCI Health Database, of these there are approximately 3,823 chows with at least one health registration number.

Here are the summations of hips, elbows, and patella luxation for the last three years and the total submissions over the entire time that the OFA has been recording these records on chows. The percentages are the percent of the submissions for that year. For example: Year 2003 there were 15 chows with excellent hips which is 13.9% of 108 submissions.

Hip Registry Summary by Year

Year	Submissions	Normal	Excellent	Good	Fair	Borderline	Abnormal	Mild	Moderate	Severe
2003	108	95	15 13.9 %	66 61.1 %	14 13.0 %	1 .9 %	12 11.1 %	7 6.5 %	4 3.7 %	1 .9 %
2004	83	69	9 10.8 %	48 57.8 %	12 14.5 %	2 2.4 %	12 14.5 %	5 6.0 %	4 4.8 %	3 3.6 %
2005	109	92	9 8.3 %	63 57.8 %	20 18.4 %	--	17 15.6 %	11 10.1 %	6 5.5 %	--
Total 1974 - 2005	4597	3583	305 6.6 %	2462 53.6 %	816 17.8 %	99 2.2 %	915 19.9 %	446 9.7 %	352 7.7 %	117 2.6 %

Elbow Registry Summary by Year

Year	Submissions	Normal	Borderline	Abnormal	EJD 1 Mild	EJD 2 Moderate	EJD 3 Severe
2003	41	17 41.5	1 2.4 %	23 56.1 %	9 39.1 %	10 43.5 %	4 17.39 %
2004	34	19 55.9 %	1 2.9 %	14 41.2 %	8 57.1 %	6 42.9 %	--
2005	53	26 49.1 %	--	27 50.9 %	10 37.0 %	13 48.2 %	4 14.81 %
Total 1990 - 2005	392	202 51.5 %	8 2.0 %	182 46.4 %	83 45.6 %	67 36.8 %	32 17.5 %

Patella Luxation Registry Summary by Year

Year	All Submissions	Normal	Abnormal
2003	7	5 71.4 %	2 28.6 %
2004	5	5 100 %	--
2005	10	7 70 %	3 30 %
Total 1994 – 2005	71	50 70.4 %	21 29.6 %

Statistics compiled by the OFA indicate that the chow chow is ranked number one for incidences of elbow dysplasia, number two for patella Luxation, and number thirty three for hip dysplasia. Elbow dysplasia can be extremely debilitating. The onset is often early and patients are bilaterally affected in a significant number of cases. There is no satisfactory medical protocol or surgical procedure to significantly alter the progression or cure the disorder. This makes it increasingly important to reduce the incidence of the disease through selective breeding. To see a reduction in the incidences of elbow dysplasia, and patella luxation it is important to selectively breed phenotypically normal dogs. In the case of hip dysplasia it is important to breed dogs with good or excellent hips.

To help breeders better their breeding programs with respect to selectively breeding to reduce the incidences of hip, elbow dysplasia and patella luxation, I have built and will maintain a website devoted to chow health. The website contains health articles from various sources such as the OFA, and CERF. The website also contains CCCI club member contributed articles such as how hip x-rays are scored in England.

I have also made the CCCI Health Database available on the web to use as a research tool. The database contains all the OFA and CERF information I have collected for the club that is contained in the CCCI Health Database. CHIC numbers are also now included in the Health Database and published in Chow Life Vicki DeGruy has now finished scanning all the old photos that were in the old OFA 3 ring binders. If any owners want these old OFA photos back they may request them from me.

I think members will find the online health database very helpful in researching pedigrees. A few of the features are: 1) Regular pedigrees with photos and links to other dogs in the pedigree. 2) Reverse pedigrees with links to other dogs. 3) Offspring of sire and dam shown for dog displayed with links. 4) Siblings of dog displayed also with links. The online database thus gives the user the ability to see where a dog came from, what it produced and with whom it was bred with.

In order to encourage people to submit a dogs health and pedigree information to me, I have made a health information form which can be filled out with information about a dog and any health certifications the dog may have. The form also has the ability for the user to include a file attachment of a pedigree and a file attachment of a photo of the dog. This information gets emailed directly to me. I can then verify the information and enter it into the Health database as well as the web database.

The cost and maintenance of the online Chow Health Database and the associated health information website is being donated to the club by myself, Phil DeGruy as I believe it is a natural extension and very useful extension of the Chow Health Database.

I hope that you find the site a useful place to resource and contribute information. My goal is to educate and to increase awareness of owners, breeders and admirers on the health and temperament of the chow chow.

The CCCI Chow Health Website can be found at http://chowhealth.org

At the end of 2005 I made a format change in the way that the Health information is being published in Chow Life. This change was necessary to reduce the amount of redundant information being printed. The change also makes it easier for the reader to see at a glance all the health certifications a dog has received that quarter. I have also made a change in the way that CERF numbers are printed in Chow Life in order to prevent any confusion with OFA numbers. The CERF numbers will now use 'ER' as the prefix instead of 'CC'. This change has also been made in the Health Database and the online Health Database.

Statistics are provided by year end OFA reports. For more information on the OFA and OFA Stastistics, please visit the Orthopedic Foundation for Animals

Sincerely,

Phil DeGruy
CCCI OFA Representative
CCCI Health Database
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
http://chowhealth.org

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