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SUMMARY:Brachycephalic dogs: There is plenty of bad news. So is there any 
 good news? - Dr David Sargan\, Department of Veterinary Medicine\, Univers
 ity of Cambridge
DTSTART:20181121T160000Z
DTEND:20181121T170000Z
UID:TALK113485@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:Fiona Roby
DESCRIPTION:In this talk I will explore the potential reasons that brachyc
 ephalic dogs are so popular\, the health and welfare consequences of their
  conformation for the dogs\, and whether there is anything that can be don
 e to make the breeds healthier\, or said in support of their ownership.\n\
 nIn a veterinary audience most will know at least part of the bad health a
 nd welfare news about brachycephalic syndrome\, but for those that do not\
 , I will review it briefly\, looking both at conditions directly linked to
  brachycephaly\, including BOAS and the disease complex around it\, and di
 seases where the link is indirect (excessive skin and its disorders and di
 sorders of the remainder of the skeleton\, joints etc.)\n\nDespite these 
 “well known” problems there has been a huge increase in popularity of 
 brachycephalic dog breeds\, both in the UK and worldwide. A brachycephalic
  dog breed\, the French bulldog\, is now the most popular pedigree animal 
 in the country\, and both registered animals and especially the “rare”
  colour type pups are very expensive. Consequently the French Bulldog is b
 elieved to also be the most imported dog in the country: both legally and 
 illegally.  Bulldogs and Pugs have also undergone large increases in popul
 arity.  I will consider potential causes for the boom in numbers.  \n\nSo 
 is there any good news to balance against the obvious welfare issues for a
  proportion of brachycephalic dogs? \n\nPet dogs undoubtedly confer benefi
 ts to their owners. These include psychological\, social and exercise bene
 fits to the elderly independent of their health. For those who have less a
 ccess to space\,  brachycephalics may appear to offer companionship with 
 “convenience”. Brachycephalic dog owners often report particularly str
 ong attachment to their pets and we know that this type of attachment is a
 ssociated with mood enhancing oxytocin release. However there is as yet no
  strong evidence to quantify this as greater for these breeds than for oth
 ers.\n\nTo what extent can this justify the existence of breeds that may h
 ave welfare problems? To quantify the welfare problem\, the approach often
  used is to weight a disorder by a combination of three factors: frequency
  or prevalence\, severity and duration. Here I will review the evidence on
  the brachycephalic breeds. In addition we can consider effectiveness of t
 reatment. And are all brachycephalic dogs bad in welfare terms? If not\, d
 oes this make a difference to how we might try to respond to the welfare p
 roblems of brachycephalic breeds? \nThis depends on the underlying genetic
 s of brachycephaly and also of the associated disorders\, which determine 
 whether disposal of these breeds\, outcrossing or selection within the bre
 ed offer the most tenable solutions to the welfare problem. I will review 
 our work on this and suggest some ways forward. I will also discuss progre
 ss that has already been made both by Jane Ladlow\, Nai-chieh Liu and othe
 rs in the BOAS research group\, and externally.  \n
LOCATION:Lecture Theatre 2\, Department of Veterinary Medicine
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