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

tHip as well as elbow dysplasia (HD, ED) are developmental disorders leading to malforma-tion of their respective joints. For a long time both disorders have been scored and targetedfor improvement using selective breeding in several Dutch dog populations. In this paperall scores for both HD and ED, given to pure bred dogs in the Netherlands from 2002 to2010, were analyzed. Heritabilities and correlations between HD and ED were calculatedfor the 4 most frequently scored breeds. Heritabilities ranged from 0.0 to 0.37 for HD relatedtraits (FCI-score, osteoarthritis, congruity, shape and laxity (Norberg angle); FCI: Fédéra-tion Cynologique Internationale) and from 0.0 to 0.39 for ED related traits (IEWG score,osteoarthritis, sclerosis and indentation; IEWG: International Elbow Working Group). HDrelated traits showed high genetic and residual correlations among each other but were onlyto a minor extent correlated with ED related traits, which also showed high correlationsamong each other. Genetic correlations were higher than residual correlations. Phenotypicand genetic trends since 2001 for the four most scored breeds were slightly positive butdecreasing over time, indicating that selection over the past decade has not been effective.