Health News
Kennel Club changes to Assured breeder scheme
The Kennel Club has added the following recommendation to Kennel Club Assured breeders regarding the Coefficient of inbreeding of new litters.
Coefficients of Inbreeding
All Assured Breeders should refer to inbreeding coefficient calculators to assist them in making balanced breeding decisions. Breeders can use the Kennel Club’s Mate Select, or, if available, another database which contains more pedigree information. The inbreeding coefficient of the potential litter should
be considered, rather than that of each individual parent. Current guidance is that, where possible, breeders should breed at or below the breed average inbreeding coefficient. Breeders should always take into consideration the number of generations used to produce the calculation and the number of offspring already sired by the male.
The Club can help with this as the Kennel Club's Mate Select programme can significantly understate the value of COIs when compared with even standardised 10 generation calculations
A multicenter randomized controlled trial of medium‐chain triglyceride dietary supplementation on
Some of you may well have IWS with epilepsy and this paper on the effects of diet may be of interest.
Click on this
British Veterinary Association statement on pet vaccination during covid-19 lockdown. 28 March 2020
Kennel Club statement
The Kennel Club: Health testing & screening during Covid-19 26 March 2020
Breed Health & Conservation Plan - 26 Jan 2020
News from breed health coordinator Sue Hempstead
As Breed Health Coordinator for the Irish Water Spaniel I am pleased to inform you that health teams from both the Sporting Irish Water Spaniel Club and the Irish Water Spaniel Association met with the Kennel Club on December 9th 2019 to formulate a Breed Health Conservation Plan for the Irish Water Spaniel.
The health teams were David Wilcox (SIWSC), Penny Willoughby (IWSA) and Jenny Menage (IWSA) and representing the Kennel Club Hannah James and Dr Tom Lewis.
I would like to thank both teams for their hard work. It is very important and vital that both clubs work together on the future health and welfare of our wonderful breed.
The BHCP can be accessed by clicking on the following link
https://siwsc.org/breed-health-plan
and if you have any queries or comments on the plan please email me and I will pass on to the Health Teams.
Sue Hempstead - arnsuecuvana@hotmail.com
Estimated breed values to be introduced - 26 Jan 2020
David Wilcox, SIWSC.
We are pleased to announce that as a result of discussions with the Kennel Club they have agreed that from 2021 hip and elbow scores for Irish Water Spaniels will be used to calculate estimated breeding values. These complex mathematical calculations estimate the genetic component where a trait is affected by both genes and the environment and when applied to hips and elbows will estimate the risk of using an individual IWS for breeding. The calculation involves using the breed mean score and those of close relatives of the dog involved to determine the risk. This risk may change over time as more hip scores are added.
This is a huge advance as the current schemes are not really any good at predicting hips in offspring from individual dogs, rather they act at the breed level (which can result in unnecessary exclusion of suitable dogs, at the expense of genetic diversity).
Consequently we really need as many IWS between the ages of 1 (2 is better) and 4 to undergo hip and elbow scoring in order to make the EBVs as accurate as possible.
https://www.thekennelclub.org.uk/health/for-breeders/breeding-advice/estimated-breeding-values/
Eye testing - a request for older dogs to be evaluated - 26 Jan 2020
David Wilcox, SIWSC.
Discussions with The Kennel Club have resulted in a request for owners of older IWS (aged 8 and above) to have their eyes tested. This is obviously not to screen them for breeding purposes but to identify possible eye diseases in the breed that have a late onset. These would not be picked up by breeders testing for breeding purposes.
For more information on eye testing and to find a specialist eye panelist click the link.