Canine Health Registries

NCA Position Statement- Open Registries

POSITION STATEMENT

The Newfoundland Club of America considers it necessary to test all breeding stock for hips, elbows, heart and cystinuria clearances. The NCA also strongly recommends testing, where indicated, thyroid, eyes and patellas. The NCA endorses and encourages the use of the open registry conducted by The Institute for Genetic Disease Control in Animals (GDC) at now merged (except for the Eye and Tumor registries) with the Orthopedic Foundation for Animals . These open registries are information sources for current and prospective Newfoundland owners and breeders seeking health data on specific dogs. Documentation should be available of clearance, test results or open registry participation for the sire and dam of the puppies. All prospective buyers are encouraged to utilize this information in their inquiries.

The Canine Health Information Center , also known as CHIC, is a centralized canine health database jointly sponsored by the AKC/Canine Health Foundation (AKC/CHF) and the Orthopedic Foundation for Animals (OFA).

Orthopedic Foundation for Animals -While the OFA continues to focus on hip dysplasia, today’s OFA Mission, “To improve the health and well being of companion animals through a reduction in the incidence of genetic disease,” reflects the organization’s expansion into other inherited diseases.

The Canine Eye Registration Foundation (CERF) is an organization that was founded by a group of concerned, purebred owner/breeders who recognized that the quality of their dog's lives were being affected by heritable eye disease. CERF was then established in conjunction with cooperating, board certified, veterinary ophthalmologists, as a means to accomplish the goal of elimination of heritable eye disease in all purebred dogs by forming a centralized, national registry.

In 1990 a group including veterinarians, scientists, dog breeders and owners associated with the International Elbow Working Group (I.E.W.G) created the non-profit Institute for Genetic Disease Control in Animals (GDC) as the first national and international open registry for canine orthopedic genetic diseases. GDC was created to gather the information from veterinary screening of individual dogs for genetic diseases and to make that information available to responsible breeders, owners, veterinarians and researchers.