18 Saber Tails Spring 2017
Petit Basset Griffon Vendéen Club of America
PETIT BASSET GRIFFON VENDEEN
CLUB OF AMERICA
WITHDRAWS FROM CHIC
L
ast November the Board of Directors of PBGVCA de-
cided to end its participation in the CHIC program as
administered by the Orthopedic Foundation for Animals.
Before explaining how the Board arrived at this decision,
some clarification about the relationship between the
CHIC program and OFA database is needed. As stated on
their home page the OFA has as its mission “To promote
the health and welfare of companion animals through
a reduction in the incidence of genetic disease”. In sup-
port of this goal, the OFA establishes standards for various
evaluations of specific health concerns identified in dogs
in general and relevant to specific breeds as needed. Ini-
tially, the health tests overseen by OFA were orthopedic
in nature (hip and elbow dysplasia and patella evaluation)
and OFA developed and administered a process of evalu-
ation by veterinarians based on objective criteria devel-
oped by OFA and maintained a database of results open
to the public. With the owner’s permission, the dogs so
evaluated are identified by name and breed in the data-
base. Over the last several years, with the development
of many genetic tests (such as the POAG test in PBGVs),
OFA has expanded its database to include the results of
genetic tests done by other organizations like the Animal
Health Trust and other laboratories, both commercial and
research oriented.
C
HIC (Canine Health Information Center) is a database
sponsored by OFA. Its number one stated goal is: “To
work with parent clubs in the identification of health is-
sues for which a central information system should be
established.” Parent clubs identify health concerns they
are interested in tracking and measuring and list tests
associated with those health concerns as required to be
conducted in order for a dog to receive a CHIC number.
Several years ago, the PBGVCA joined CHIC and chose
OFA hip and CERF (eye) examinations to be the two health
tests required for a PBGV to be given a CHIC number.
W
hen the test for primary open angle glaucoma
(POAG) became available, it afforded the opportu-
nity to assess the usefulness of existing CHIC required
tests. Two years of research into the prevalence of hip
dysplasia (clinical) and the usefulness of OFA hip evalua-
tions in either predicting the outcome for the tested dogs,
or the genetic outcome for the offspring of these tested
dogs led the Board to recommend that OFA hip testing
be removed as a required test for obtaining a CHIC num-
ber for PBGVs. A summary of this research was published
in Saber Tails (March 2016, p. 29). The article concluded
that hip dysplasia is not prevalent in PBGVs and that OFA
evaluations are not useful predictors of clinical or genetic
outcomes in this breed.
T
he Board of Directors of PBGVCA has the responsibility
of making decisions that are in the best interests of the
breed and its members and that are based on available
evidence. Several requests for information about actual
cases of clinical hip dysplasia resulted in one documented
case of HD in a dog with an OFA rating of ‘Good’. Based on
this, a majority of the Board decided to formally request
the removal of hip evaluations for the CHIC requirements
for PBGVs and a letter was sent to OFA with this request.
A
lthough CHIC states that its goal is to “work with
parent clubs in the identification of health issues
for which a central information system should be estab-
lished” the response received from OFA denied our re-
quest. The Board responded to this denial by offering
to retain hip evaluations as an optional test as is the case
with many breeds with higher incidences of Hip Dyspla-
sia. This request was also denied by OFA leaving the Club
in the position of either requiring testing of no demon-
strable value in this breed or ending our participation in
the CHIC program. The latter was the course chosen by
the Board of Directors.
T
he Board’s decision was not made lightly. It was not a
unanimous decision and there were dissenters on the
Board who wanted to leave hip dysplasia testing in a re-
quirement for CHIC. However, the clear majority voted to
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