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These are the
certifications that can be obtained via OFA that are pertinent to
Bichons: hip dysplasia, elbow dysplasia, patellar luxation,
legg-calve-perthes, cardiac, congenital deafness, and thyroid
disease. You can read more about these diseases and tests by going
to the OFA web site at
www.offa.org.
Below is the data from OFA for the last 30 years, from 1974 to the
end of 2004. This data is helpful in determining what diseases are
prevalent in Bichons, which assists BFCA’s Health Committee in
determining which research projects will benefit our breed. The
problem is that reporting of some diseases is minimal and the data
OFA reports only reflects dogs that are OFA certified, not all dogs
affected with these diseases. Breeders should share all of their OFA
reports with OFA and the Health Committee, even those reports of
abnormalities, so that we have more accurate data to process.
If you do not chose to publish abnormal results, please assure that
the vet sends the xrays and forms to OFA so the data can be utilized
for research, which remains anonymous. This data reflects
the incidence of these diseases in Bichons and helps us determine
research priorities. If abnormal xrays and forms are not sent to
OFA, the data will be skewed by showing a false low incidence for
that particular disease.
Below are the statistics of OFA reports for the last 30 years
for Bichons:
Cardiac Diseases
Rank: # 36 of all breeds # of evaluations: 82 # affected: 1%
Patellar Luxation
Rank: # 11 of all breeds # of evaluations: 561 # affected: 8%
Elbow Dysplasia
Rank: # 65 of all breeds # of evaluations: 199 # affected: 2%
Hip Dysplasia
Rank: # 105 of all breeds # of evaluations: 2343 # affected: 6%
Thyroid Disease: no reports for Bichons
Congenital Deafness: statistics are not reported on the OFA
web site
Remember, you and any person interested in buying or breeding
Bichons, can consult the OFA web site to determine which
Bichons/breeders are completing genetic screening prior to breeding.
To do this, go to their site at
www.offa.org
and click on “search OFA records”. We now mention this on our web
site
http://bichonhealth.org/HealthInfo/OFAdata.asp in the article
entitled “Before You Buy Your Puppy”.
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