Prevalence and co-occurrence of hip dysplasia and elbow dysplasia in Dutch pure-bred dogs

Hip as well as elbow dysplasia (HD, ED) are developmental disorders leading to malformation of their respective joints. For a long time both disorders have been scored and targeted for improvement using selective breeding in several Dutch dog populations. In this paper all scores for both HD and ED, given to pure bred dogs in the Netherlands from 2002 to 2010, were analyzed. Heritabilities and correlations between HD and ED were calculated for the 4 most frequently scored breeds. Heritabilities ranged from 0.0 to 0.37 for HD related traits (FCI-score, osteoarthritis, congruity, shape and laxity (Norberg angle); FCI: Fédération Cynologique Internationale) and from 0.0 to 0.39 for ED related traits (IEWG score, osteoarthritis, sclerosis and indentation; IEWG: International Elbow Working Group). HD related traits showed high genetic and residual correlations among each other but were only to a minor extent correlated with ED related traits, which also showed high correlations among each other. Genetic correlations were higher than residual correlations. Phenotypic and genetic trends since 2001 for the four most scored breeds were slightly positive but decreasing over time, indicating that selection over the past decade has not been effective.