Episode 202: CHIC and the Ins & Outs of the OFA

Learn from the president of the OFA, Fran Smith, DVM PhD DACT, about the history of the Canine Health Information Center and how breed health tests can be used in your breeding program to produce healthy dogs. Find out who the specialty groups are who validate the tests and how they can help you learn to use these tests to benefit your dogs.

Watch the video version of this presentation here.

Transcript:

Nicole Engelman  00:04

Welcome to the Good Dog Pod. Join us every other Wednesday when we discuss all things dogs, from health and veterinary care to training and behavior science, as well as the ins and outs of Good Dog and how our platform can help you successfully run your breeding program. Follow us and join Good Dog's mission to build a better world for our dogs and the people who love them.

Nicole Engelman  00:28

So I want to formally welcome everyone to today's webinar. The year is rapidly coming to a close, and we just have two more webinars left, this being one of them for 2025. So of course, we couldn't have anyone else here than Dr. Fran Smith, because we love having her join us, and there is no one better to start wrapping up the year with than her. Today, she's going to be presenting on CHIC and the ins and outs of the OFA. So, a quick overview on what that actually means that we'll be focusing on: Dr. Smith is going to share more about the Canine Health Information Center and the history of it, and how breed health tests can be used in your program to produce healthy dogs. We've been getting a lot of questions just in that same topic area for the past few weeks, especially from breeders. So we thought it'd be really great to bring you this webinar and help answer some of those from the expert herself. So together, we're going to find out who the specialty groups are who validate these tests and how they can help you use these tests to benefit your dogs, which is what these webinars are all about. So of course, we have to thank our friends at Purina for helping us bring this webinar to life and bring it to you. Again, I know I've mentioned this a few times already in our past webinars, but please keep letting us know what you have questions about, what you'd like to learn more about, because we're planning 2026 and it is so helpful to see what kind of topics you're interested in learning about in the year ahead. And if you've been joining us for the entire year, you'll know that we've had a ton of webinars already this year, just in case you've somehow missed any of them or all of them, and you want to see all the really cool topics we've dived into this year. As always, we have a Q&A segment of this presentation. We got very detailed ones for this webinar. So I'm excited to ask some of those. And I appreciate people putting such time into the questions that they submit. All right, very quickly, if you are somehow new to Good Dog, I just want to share a little bit more about who we are and what we do. Good Dog is on a mission to build a better world for our dogs and the people who love them by advocating for dog breeders like yourselves, educating the public on all of the incredible work that you do to raise healthy puppies, and promoting canine health and responsible dog ownership through events just like this. We're an online community created just for breeders to connect with Good Dog buyers from across the country and find forever homes for your puppies. We help breeders run all aspects of their program, everything from getting your new litter of puppies listed, connecting with Good Dog buyers, getting to know buyers, accepting payments securely, and all the smaller things that happen in between your puppies being born and going off to their new homes. We are here to support you in all of that, so we can take some of the burden off of running your program and give you much needed time back to just do what you do best, which is raising happy and healthy puppies. So we would love to have you join our community or learn more if you're still unfamiliar with us. So you can always check out GoodDog.com/join to learn a little bit more about us and how to join. You can also just reach out to us at breederteam@GoodDog.com with any questions. Someone on our team will be happy to answer those for you. So all that out of the way, I still would love to formally introduce Dr. Fran Smith, even though we've had her on for many webinars this year already, because she has such an incredible background in canine health, and I want everyone to remember why we are so lucky to have her here. So Dr. Smith became a diplomat of the College of Theriogenology in 1986 and since that time, she has been in private practice as a small animal practitioner specializing in canine reproduction. Dr. Smith is one of very few board certified theriogenologists in private practice. Her expertise in genetic counseling, chilled and frozen semen, and reproductive infertility of male and female canines is known throughout the US. She frequently speaks to breed groups, veterinary associations, students, and the general public—and I would say Good Dog at this point, because we've had you join us so many times this year. Dr. Smith retired from full time practice in March of 2023 but she maintains licenses in Minnesota, Mississippi, and Colorado, and she grew up in a military family that bred German Shepherd dogs. Her commitment to veterinary medicine began at seven years of age and was confirmed in her high school yearbook, which stated her goal was the patter of 40 little feet, not human. And with that, Dr. Smith, I will pass things over to you to kick off our presentation.

Dr. Francis Smith  04:51

Thank you very much, Nicole. And I should tell you, I've already been contacted about Good Dog to see if I would do some seminars in 2026, and my answer was yes. I'm trying to come up with some exciting topics for all of you, so I will check with Nicole and see what all has been requested. But today I'm going to talk to you about something near and dear to my heart, the OFA, the Orthopedic Foundation for Animals. I think all of us have a mission or a goal to do something good for the world. And if there's any place that I feel strongly that I have contributed, it's as being part of the OFA. The OFA, and you'll get lots of details on the organization, etc.: It's a not for profit. It's a 501(c)(3) and I would challenge any company, any not-for-profit, anywhere, to find a group of people that are as pure of heart about a purpose as the members of the OFA board are. I'm thrilled to tell you that the goal of all of these people is to improve canine health, and we do not have personal agendas, and that is rare in any organization, whether it be a for-profit or a not-for-profit. So that being said, I will tell you, this is where I feel the most gratitude and the most thankful for my opportunity to help. So with that in mind, we'll get started with this talk, and I think I'll be able to give you some real insight. 

The ins and outs of the OFA. Francis O. Smith, DVM, PhD, I'm a diplomat at the American College of Theriogenology. For those of you who have never heard the term before, theriogenology is a combination of OBGYN and neurology. So fertility, infertility, and all parts (I would say) basically do with the plumbing of mammals. So I am board certified in small animal practice. I'm retired. I do maintain three licenses. Once you are board certified as a theriogenologist, you remain board certified unless you are disciplined somehow, and I have not been and don't intend to be. I'm a breeder, owner, trader, handler, and judge of Retriever breeds. So I show in conformation, obedience. I have never shown in agility but I've produced agility trial champions. Many of my dogs are very talented in scent work and in search and rescue, and I do judge sweepstakes at many, many AKC dog shows, and that's all-breed. I'm the president of the Labrador Retriever Club, Inc., which is the parent club for the Labrador Retriever. And I'm the health chairperson for the Labrador Retriever Club, Inc. I've been committed to the Labrador but to all dogs for a very, very long time. I've been a member of the Labrador Club since 1987 and a member of the board since 1994. I'm also the president of the Orthopedic Foundation for Animals, and I have been the president of that organization for over 25 years. OFA created the Canine Health Information Center by participating with parent clubs to research and maintain information on the health issues prevalent in specific breeds. So because breeders recognize that specific breeds of dogs have some unique health challenges and some not unique, they wanted some help figuring out how to get to the bottom of them. OFA developed a recommended protocol for breed specific health screenings, and dogs that are tested in accordance with that protocol are recognized with a CHIC number and certification. A dog achieves CHIC certification if it has been screened for every disease recommended by the parent club for that breed. So what does that mean? So as the health chair for the Labrador Retriever Club and the president, it made it pretty easy for me, although I wasn't the president of the Labrador Club at the time we picked our health requirements. I was tasked with the job of deciding what were the most significant health issues that face Labrador Retriever dogs. And at the point that we became a CHIC breed, the Labrador Club (we were one of the very first), the issues most facing the Labrador were hip dysplasia, elbow dysplasia, and eye disease. So the early recommendations were for a dog to have clearances for hips, elbows, and hereditary eye diseases. That being said, you had to be willing, as an owner, to share those results publicly in a database. Since that time, as veterinary medicine in the world has become more sophisticated, the Labrador Club has added two other tests to the requirements for CHIC, and those are a test for what is called EIC (exercise induced collapse), which is a neuromuscular disorder that causes collapse in the Labrador Retriever and is inherited as a recessive trait, and also the test for the gene that is responsible for dilute color, hence silver. And our rationale for that was dilute coat color in many breeds, including the Labrador, is associated with significant skin disease.

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So the goal of CHIC is to work with parent clubs to identify health issues for which a central information system should be established. An important point to know here: OFA offers a tool for parent clubs to do health surveys. They will run a health survey for you. We have a whole set of parameters that are typically explored, and that survey is then posted on the OFA website. And anyone with that breed can add data to that database. They don't have to be a parent club member, and I'll give you an example of one of the things that it might ask: How old was your dog when it died? Believe it or not, in veterinary medicine and in many areas of research, what we really lack heavily is what I would call data on normal activity. If you were to say to me today, “What is the average age at death of a Labrador Retriever?” there is no good, solid, well researched data that will tell you that, because people don't tend to file anywhere, nor is there any group that collects it when a dog dies. I would tell you that my impression, after all the time I've been a Labrador breeder and involved in the breed, is that a great percentage of them live to 10, with many of them living to be 12. If you were to say, “Is a Labrador likely to live to 16?” I would say, highly unlikely, but some do. But anyway, we need lots of data acquisition. Also, people will say to me, and researchers will say, “Are Labrador Retrievers cancer prone?” I would tell you, again, based on the data available, as a breed as a whole, they are not. But if you were to ask many research institutions, they probably would tell you that Labradors are and part of that is because the data at research institutions (and what we call tertiary institutions) is based on the population that you see. Now, what that means is, if there are more Labrador Retrievers in the United States than almost any other breed, and we know that to be true—in fact, up until recently, definitely true, other than Frenchies. If you're a veterinary clinic, you're likely, for instance, to see more Labrador Retrievers in your practice than Pyrenean Shepherds. So of course, if you see more of them, you're more likely to see an assortment of diseases. So one other thing, and I don't have any slides on what is called risk, there are statistics that tell you whether a breed is at increased risk for a disease versus other breeds of dogs. And so when someone tells you that a Labrador is likely to have this or that, you should try to research what the risk is. And let me give you an example here. There is a disease of all large breed dogs called DM (degenerative myelopathy). Could a Labrador get DM? Yes. What is the risk associated with DM for a Labrador relative to all other dogs? It's exactly the same. So that would tell you that if you get a Labrador, one of the things that you need to be worried about is not likely to be DM (degenerative myelopathy). So again, goal is to try to establish and maintain a Central Health Information System in a manner that supports research into canine disease and provides health information to owners and breeders. We try to establish scientifically valid diagnostic criteria for the acceptance of information in the database. That's also important, because there is a difference between anecdotal information and cause and effect information. As a veterinarian, I commonly would have clients say to me things like—and this is an example, it's not an exact: “Well, you know, my dog is now 15 months old, and she never had an ear infection until she was spayed, but since she's been spayed, she's had three ear infections. I think having her spayed caused the ear infection.” That's not a cause and effect; that's an anecdotal relationship. So it's important to differentiate cause and effect from an association, and we base the availability of information on individually identified dogs, on the consent of the owner. Core to the CHIC philosophy is that each breed has different health concerns. We kind of touched on that. Do I worry about a Labrador Retriever having Von Willebrand disease? That's a bleeding disorder that occurs in a number of breeds, including Doberman Pinschers. It would be very rare for a Labrador to have Von Willebrand disease, but it could happen. The other thing you need to know is not all the diseases that there are have known modes of inheritance, nor are there screening tests for all diseases. And that's a huge challenge, because we can't test and eliminate for everything, and biological systems are very, very complicated. The screening test that we do use may be based on genetic testing or on phenotypic testing, and again, that's important, because many of our tests are phenotypic, and we'll talk about them. That has to do with hip dysplasia and elbow dysplasia. We base our assessment on what we see, not on the genes associated with those diseases. Breed specific requirements typically consist of the inherent diseases that are of most concern to the breed and for which screening tests are available. So I talked to you about the Labrador and the CHIC requirements: OFA hips (that's an X-ray), OFA elbows (that's a radiograph), the OFA or CAER (Canine Animal Eye Registry) is an eye exam done by board certified ophthalmologist. Those are all phenotypic tests, meaning someone looks at an X-ray of the dog's hips, the dog's elbows, the dog's eyes, and says whether they're normal or not. And EIC and the dilute test are gene tests. We can actually identify the gene test and know for sure that the dogs have or do not have the gene for that disease. Different clubs may differ on screening protocols that are acceptable to the club. So let me give you another example here, and I'm going to use breeds that are very, very common. The Labrador Retriever Club recommends, but does not require, that breeding dogs have a cardiac clearance, meaning they have a veterinarian, a cardiologist or a trained practitioner that listens to a dog's heart to make sure it does not have heart murmurs. If the dog is normal, our club allows the dog to have its heart cleared by what is called a basic cardiac exam. The Golden Retriever Club, on the other hand, requires that Golden Retrievers in a breeding program for the club members (now realize these are all voluntary tests, but for people doing the best), have those cardiac exams done by a board certified cardiologist, and that they be accompanied by an echocardiogram to make sure there's not something wrong with the heart that cannot be heard.

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The OFA CHIC database operates on informed consent. Owners are encouraged to release all test results, realizing it is in the ultimate health interest of the breed. To qualify a CHIC number and achieve CHIC certification, all test results must be released into the public domain. So the CHIC number itself does not mean that the animal is normal. It means that the tests have been done and the results are available to anybody that wants to see them. A CHIC report is issued at the same time as the CHIC number. So why is this important? And an example I'm going to give you—again, I'm going to use the Labrador a lot, because there's a lot of them. It's my breed, etc., etc.—is the test for EIC. Exercise induced collapse has a relatively high carrier rate in the population. However, dogs that carry one copy of that gene are completely normal—completely. And for that reason, if other things are good, and there's a reason that that dog you believe should be bred, being a carrier for EIC does not mean you should not use that dog in a breeding program, but it is important that people share that, because if you accidentally breed a carrier to a carrier based on a statistical number, you could potentially have puppies that are affected with EIC and, with exercise or excitement, could collapse. So it allows breeders and puppy buyers to make informed decisions on their dogs. So again, a CHIC report is issued at the same time as the CHIC number. The breed specific requirements, again for the CHIC number are dynamic. Parent clubs can modify or add new requirements. CHIC programs add new screening tests as new health concerns develop. If in fact, the requirements change, the OFA does not take away the existing CHIC numbers. So in point here, in the early days for the Labrador, we didn't require EIC testing and dilute testing. So if a dog had a CHIC number under those systems, once the new tests were added, they did not lose that CHIC number. We would encourage the owners, if the dogs are still alive, to do those tests, but they are not required. OFA and CHIC work hand in hand as test results from the OFA databases are shared automatically with CHIC. I think this is a big point that points out how good OFA is. There is no additional fee or additional forms to fill out once test results are registered with the OFA. So if you have a breed, and you send in tests that are applicable to your breed’s CHIC requirements, and your dog meets all those requirements, you will get a CHIC form from OFA. There are more than 200,000 dogs with CHIC numbers. In 2025, we had 10,000 new dogs that received CHIC numbers. Additionally, as part of the CHIC program, OFA offers DNA storage, and we have 38,000 samples that are available for approved research on disease, with over 2,000 new samples, and we store both blood or cheek swabs. 

What does that mean? So let's then say—I'm going to make up a disease here. We're going to make up a disease in Labradors called Lacking Left Ear. Now, that disease does not exist. But if a researcher wanted to research Lacking Left Ear syndrome and Labrador Retrievers, they could contact the OFA, ask if we have Labrador samples, and use the samples already on file to look for the genes associated with that problem. One of the hardest parts in canine or in animal research is sample gathering at the beginning of a project. So this storage basis that we have at OFA is a fabulous resource for researchers in animal disease. 

So this is DNA. We're going to talk a lot about DNA and genetic test today too. Isn't that a pretty slide? Believe me, that is not my artwork. So I know a bunch of you use panel tests. This particular sample is from a Beagle, and it's a male Beagle who is a champion. He's actually owned by Eddie Zook, who is the CEO of the OFA, and I have his permission to use this lab work. And he sent this in on his dog for information’s sake, and it talks to you about what normal versus carrier versus carry-at-risk or at-risk-affected means to a dog that may or may not have a disease. So we'll pretend that this is, again, about the dilute gene. So if the dog is “normal” for the dilute gene, it would mean that this dog does not have the gene that would cause silver. And you would expect that in this particular breed of dog. Potentially, though, a dog that is a carrier for silver could carry one copy of that mutation. This is an Embark panel, and they also will assess that the dog is the breed that it is. And in fact, this dog who I happen to know—she's very pretty. Her name is Belinda. She was born in Canada. And Embark agreed she is 100% Golden Retriever. The breed health test that they did were all of these tests, and you can see she is clear of all of these different diseases, and it allows you to make important breeding decisions. So the AKC DNA test meets AKC registration and OFA CHIC requirements, follows parent clubs. Genetic counseling supports breeder decisions. It's reliable and can be combined with parentage for internal validation, so DNA profiles. The only AKC approved profile for parentage verification required for frequently used sires, frozen semen, and foreign born dogs. Now AKC is certainly not the only company that offers panel tests. 

Why panel test versus not: so it's a microarray technology, meaning when you run a single test, it's a big deal in a laboratory, and it's very, very cost effective. When you use big chips with lots of tests on it, you then are able to offer testing at a lower price, and those tests are very, very, very accurate. The downside of panel tests, in my opinion, are that it will give you lots of information about diseases that really are neither prevalent or even common in your breed, so they can be confusing. So you always want to deal with a panel test provider who can give you information on what the results of your tests actually mean.

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So here you go. So here's an example on an Airedale, and this is hyperuricosuria, which is a very uncomfortable disease for a dog that has it, because they produce bladder stones, they have a difficulty peeing, and can result in surgery. So it would be important to know if this Airedale carries any genes for bladder stones, because male dogs, which this one is, are more prone to developing stones than our females. And you can see he is WT/WT, which means he's clear. So he has no increased risk of having stones than any dog or any cross bred dog at all, so you get a lot of information there. And you can also see that he has one copy of the gene for degenerative myelopathy, so he's a carrier, but really is not at increased risk of becoming paralyzed from that disease. So the OFA, which is also called the Canine Health Information Center, was originally titled the Orthopedic Foundation for Animals. This is an example of a dog of mine who had a CHIC number. And he's a Labrador Retriever. You can see on here his registration, the age at which he was certified. This has eyes, hips, elbows, EIC, and D-locus are required tests for the Labrador, he was clear of all of those diseases. He also had normal patellas, and he was normal for central nuclear myopathy. So you can look at that. Anybody can look up any dog on the OFA website, and if the tests have been submitted to OFA and they are normal, you can find that dog in the database. So for you as a breeder or you as a buyer, if someone says, “Oh, yeah, I do all these health clearances,” you can put in the kettle name and look up the dogs that that breeder has produced that have these health clearances. I invite any of you to look up the kennel name, Danikk—that's my kennel name—and look up the dogs there and their clearances. You will also find on there, some dogs where they weren't all normal, and that is because it is important to know what these dogs genetically carry, as well as what they are themselves. So this is what is called a vertical pedigree. An OFA vertical pedigree allows you a lot about what this dog is likely to produce. So you can see this dog, Kevin, who was the talk of the town, who was mine, at an OFA fair. He had two siblings which were good, and at this point, he hadn't sired any puppies. But if you look back here at his pedigree and look at what kind of hips his ancestors had, you would predict, based on generational pedigree that he would be likely to produce good and excellent offspring, rather than fair offspring, which he was. And you can see that not only because of his parents and his grandparents, but because of his siblings. You can see a great percentage of his siblings were good and excellent. So again, we talked about this Labrador Retriever, OFA hips, OFA elbows, a CVO ophthalmologist, EIC, CNM (another neuromuscular disorder). It's optional. The D-locus. 

And then we have an official website. How and why did it start? OFA was started by John Olin, a very famous sportsman and philanthropist, in 1966. Mr. Olin owned Winchester Arms and was very involved in Labrador Retrievers. He was concerned about his dog's age (they developed lameness), and he wanted to find the cause of the lameness and to identify possible control measures. 

The original eye database was initiated through the efforts of a Poodle breeder named Dolly Trotter, who was concerned about loss of vision in Poodles. The disease was ultimately diagnosed as progressive retinal atrophy (or the PRCD form of PRA), inherited as a recessive, and it was her initial seed money that got the ophthalmologist interested in figuring out why this occurred and what to do about it. Funding for research on each of these diseases was provided by individuals deeply committed to the health of their breed. And this is a little gem that you can share with people who say to you, “You shouldn't breed dogs.” These people cared enough about health in their breeds that they provided huge funds to research issues that can be controlled and nearly eliminated by careful breeding progress. So breeders really do care, and I know you care, or you wouldn't be listening to talks like this today. The original funding for OFA was on the grounds at the University of Missouri in Columbia. Today, the OFA is located in Columbia on Nifong Boulevard. Our health testing is triggered by the concern for the companion animals that we love, and selection of the test applied to the different breeds is joint between the veterinarians that treat companion animals and observations from owners and breeders. 

So when a test is developed, how does it come about? First of all, someone has to recognize that's a problem. Then it is brought to the attention of OFA—or in the case say, of a heart problem, it might be to veterinary cardiologists and that group of people will say, “We believe that this is a health concern that has some basis in heredity, and we need to develop a test to control it.” So the first test to be designed that way was actually the hip dysplasia exam, and it was based on the extended venture dorsal view, and it was made by recommendations of the American Veterinary Medical Association. So my point here is: OFA doesn't go around trying to talk people into running new tests. We fill a need, and we serve that need well. In a VT pelvis for hip dysplasia, the dog is positioned on its back with hips rotated inward and extended. The radiographs are evaluated by board certified radiologists to assess the fit of the ball and socket. If the dog is normal, it gets OFA excellent, good, or fair. If the dog is abnormal, it is assigned an OFA rate of borderline, mild, moderate, or severe hip dysplasia. Scientific evidence that 24 months of age or older is the valid age to confirm that a pelvis is normal. Dogs younger than 24 months—in fact, as young as four months—can be evaluated, resulting in a preliminary evaluation of the hips. Now we talked here a little bit about the 24 months. Follow up actual research showed that if a dog at 24 months gets a normal rating, it has a greater than 95% chance of staying normal for life. Dogs evaluated at a younger age have variable likelihood of staying normal for life, and it is breed specific. Again, I can talk about two breeds that I'm involved with, Labradors and Chesapeakes. Labradors that are normal, say at 18 months, are very likely to be greater than 85% likely to be normal at two. A Chesapeake that is normal at 18 months or worse, at 12 months, has about a 65% chance of being normal at two. What does that mean? It just means that hip development in the two breeds are different, which is why you want to evaluate your dog when it is 24 months or older. 

Now here's some beautiful hip radiographs. These are from the OFA. A couple of things I want to point out to you: there is no client information on these films. When films come to the OFA, they are assigned a barcode. The owner information is blocked. The only thing that the radiologist gets is the radiograph, the age, and breed of the dog. Okay, so in essence, they are blinded. Because people do say, “Well, how about—I bet—since you're the president, all your dogs’ hips pass?” Well, that's not true. I mean, I have a very, very good hip record after a gazillion generations of selecting but it's not because they know which dog is my dog. So when they look at this hip film, two important criteria: these foramen, notice, are very, very, very similar in shape. There is a subtle line right there, which is the rim of the pelvis. We want to look for a dog where the great majority of the ball is deep in the socket and there is minimal, minimal joint space here, and that it has distinct narrow necks and, again, really good pelvic symmetry. Down here, you can see that the kneecaps—here's a kneecap and here's your kneecap—are right centered over the femur. On this dog, you can see there's much less of the hip in the socket. This is the neck, and you can see that this neck is very much filled in and fit compared to this nice little narrow angle on this particular hip. So this dog is dysplastic. The other one is normal. 

When it comes to elbow dysplasia, elbow dysplasia is very hard for people not well trained in it to see. We leave the dog on their side. And according to the International Elbow Working Group, the most diagnostic single screening film is the extremely flexed medial to lateral. So this is the dog's upper arm, your humerus. This is the elbow joint. This is the radius, and this is the ulna. So we look for changes along the ulnar groove here. Changes in this area of the coronoid, and in some cases, for actually a fracture line right across here. This is a normal elbow. This elbow has all of this moth eaten and nude bone. This dog got a grade-free elbow dysplasia, which is severe elbow dysplasia. So you can see those lesions here, all those changes. Now these films, once they go to OFA, are read independently by three board certified radiologists, so veterinarians with advanced training and radiology, and it is the consensus of the three who decide what grade the dog gets. So as an example, if this film went in and one of the radiologists said this was grade one and the other two said it was grade three, the film would go back out to three different radiologists trying to get a consensus. So we do have quality control. We do intra assay and we resurvey our radiologists to see that they are consistent and accurate. 

So the OFA functions as a voluntary diagnostic service, the data bank for genetic health status for dogs and cats, and we're the world's largest animal health database containing genetic information. The mission is to improve the health and wellbeing of companion animals through a reduction in the incidence of genetic disease. OFA objectives are: collate and disseminate, so collate and share information concerning orthopedic and genetic disease of animals. Advise, encourage, and establish control programs to lower the incidence of orthopedic and genetic disease. Encourage and finance research in orthopedic and genetic disease and receive funds and make grants to carry out these objectives. The objectives are met through our core service by the board certified veterinarian radiologist for hips, elbows, Legg-Calvé-Perthes, and shoulder OCD, and our databases and websites are a tool for your breeders to make information-informed breeding consents. The right thing to do as a dog breeder is to do everything in your power that you can to produce a happy, healthy dog. Not all diseases are genetically caused, but genetic disease does cause about 25% of the diseases that inflict canines. The OFA is a not-for-profit. It's the world's largest animal health database, and the information in the database is stored and available for individuals and group use. The OFA provides a diagnostic service, but we do not sell items. Any test considered for entry into the diagnostic and data realm has received support and research data from the appropriate veterinary entity, eye data from the American College of Veterinary Ophthalmology, hip and elbow data from American College of Veterinary Radiology, the cardiac clearance from American College of Veterinary Cardiologists, which is part of Internal Medicine. We have over 5.4 million individual dogs in the database, and we have 21 board certified radiologists that read radiographs for the OFA, and these films are randomized when they go out to the radiologist. I used to have people tell me, “Well, I don't want my films to get there on Monday, because on Monday the radiologists are tougher than they are on Friday, because by Friday they're tired.” But that's not true. That's not the way they're circulating. And we do read over 2,500 cases for service dog organizations at no charge. Obviously, our pets are important. Our breeding dogs are important, but our service dogs are vital to the people that need them, so it's important that they be as genetically healthy as possible. We have almost 2 million dogs with hip records in the database; 802,000 with elbow records; almost 796,000 eye records in the database. And eye records are based on both phenotype and genotype. These are phenotype. We can't tell about the genes. These are phenotype. For some eye diseases, it's phenotype only, and for others, it's genotype. The OFA has contributed over two and a half million dollars to canine health research grants, scholarships, and education, and our work supports our mission of healthier companion animals. Healthy parents tend to produce healthy puppies. Our three original databases were canine hip dysplasia, canine elbow, and inherited canine eye disease. Hip dysplasia and elbow dysplasia are inherited in a polygenetic manner. The evaluation is based on phenotypes. So basically what that means: normal parents can produce dogs with hip dysplasia, and that's because the genes we are not recognizing, we're looking at what we see as a result of the disease. National breed clubs, which are governing bodies for each breed in the US, make recommendations to the breeders, the OFA, and the veterinary bodies, as to what the most significant health issues are in the breed. Almost every breed tests for hip dysplasia. There are no breeds that are totally free.

45:45

Preliminary hip X-rays are just that. Prelim. They're better than no radiograph, but they are not equivalent to being cleared at 24 months. And remember, we talked about the statistical reason for that. OFA numbers are not given prior to 24 months for hip and elbow evaluations, because many animals have changes in their joints as they grow and mature. The OFA knows what breeds are likely to change and how much. When a radiograph reaches the OFA, that information on the dog owner again is added to the database. The submission is blinded, so the radiologist doesn't know the dog or who owns it. Again, the radiologist sees the dog's age, breed, and sex. Crossbred dogs can be evaluated. OFA has a database for hybrids. So if you breed any of the Doodles or Shih Poos or any of that, you can radiograph and do all of these health screening tests on that. You can have that information listed on the OFA website, and it will be listed as a hybrid dog. So again, if your dog is under 24 months of age, one radiologist reads them. On dogs that are 24 months of age or older, three radiologists read them, and the rating received is the consensus of three reviewers. If you are doing Golden Doodles, you really should do all of the health screening tests for the Golden and for all of them for the Poodle. Now, I will also tell you that in England for a while (and I'm sure in other countries here and probably here as well, for a while), many of the guide dog groups were very interested in doing Labradoodles. And a disease in both breeds that we really don't have any screening test for is epilepsy. So Labradoodles in Britain, in the guide dog program, had an increased incidence of seizure disorders, epilepsy, because both breeds have epilepsy, and combining those two pedigrees did not lessen the risk for epilepsy. So the point here is breeding, one breed to another, does not decrease risk for disease unless it's a very, very, very unique disease. Again, I would recommend for those of you that do Goldendoodles, particularly if you're breeding back to a Poodle side, that you also do the test for sebaceous adenitis, which is a serious, serious indices that affects the Poodle, but not the Golden Retriever. But if you have a Goldendoodle and you back cross to a Poodle, you could increase the risk for sebaceous adenitis. All of the radiographs that OFA receives are screened for diagnostic quality, meaning, if the film is poorly positioned, not exposed to the right amount of radiation, it will be returned. They have to properly positioned and have appropriate exposure. If the radiographs don't meet that criteria, they're rejected. Positioning is important to get accurate and appropriate diagnostics. Any veterinarian is trained in vet school, the positioning techniques, but you can improve your outcome by using a veterinary practice that's experienced in taking OFA X-rays. 

Okay, Bernadoodles or Labradoodles, same concept, Maltipoo or Shih Poos, you need to take a health test for all breed-associated issues. If I were doing Maltipoos and probably Shih Poos, I would also do bile acids, which are not a requirement of either breed, but both Maltese and Shihtzus have increased of liver shunts, and so bile acids would be a helpful test to have to who are going to breed those breeds. So phenotypic health tests, the visual assessment or the presence of absence of the hips and elbows, are two examples that are associated on a phenotypic basis. The radiologist reads the radiographs submitted from the criteria associated with normal hips or elbows. The assessment tells you if the dog is normal or not. It does not tell you anything about the genetic substance of the dog. As an example, we can see that a Labrador is black. We cannot tell visually if it carries color genes for yellow or chocolate or any other pattern. So we can see on a hip film that a Labrador has normal hips. We can't tell by looking at that film whether that dog is likely or not as likely to produce normal hips, and that's why I showed you that first example of a dog of mine, who, based on the pedigree of his parents and grandparents, is likely to produce mostly good and excellent offspring. DNA tests, genotypic tests, allow the order to discover the genes for many health issues and to assess many other traits that have known genetic causes. Many of these health issues affecting dogs are simple autosomal recessive. Examples of this are the PRCD form of PRA in Poodles and Labradors, exercise induced collapse (meaning, if you are a dog that collapses from exercise induced collapse, you got one gene for that disease from each of your parents, which is why it's important to know what the genetic makeup of the parents are). DNA testing allows breeders to make informed breeding decisions without unnecessarily removing animals from breeding programs. A carrier or even an affected dog may, under some circumstances, be considered suitable for breed. Again, we're going to talk about panels. DNA panels do not assess any of the phenotypically inherited diseases, such as luxating patellas or cardiac disease. So they do things like eye disease, inheritance of stones, some skin diseases. They're wide sweeping panels identifying known genes in canines. And again, I warned you that some DNA panels may tell you that your dog carries genes for something that is totally unimportant in your breed or combination of breeds. Our staff veterinarians are Dr. Greg Keller, who's been with the OFA for more than four years, and Dr. Gabby Bears, who's been with the OFA for six years. So if you have a question about the results, particularly of hips or elbows or one of those, they're your go-to people. And both Dr. Bears and Dr Keller are very, very willing to talk to you about what they saw in your radiograph and to educate you. And that's the end of my slide. So, Nicole, do we have questions? I hope.

Nicole Engelman  53:46

Oh, yes, we have a ton. I will do my best to get through as many as we can, because I know we're almost at time. A very quick one. Someone was wondering if you could just repeat what information is unblinded to the OFA reviewers versus what's not, and then also what information is provided on the films to the radiologist.

Dr. Francis Smith  54:06

The radiologist gets nothing except the film and the breed and age of dog. So they would get a blank film that says Golden Retriever, two years old. It will say male or female, although typically on the radiograph, you can tell. Even if the male is not neutered, you will see a shadow of testicles or the prepuce, but they get no owner information or dog information. 

Nicole Engelman  54:37

Awesome. Thank you for answering that one. Another person shared: When OFA is done for luxating patella, why is it necessary to force the dislocation of the kneecap? I've had dogs who were injured and ligaments permanently damaged during this exam. This then causes them to fail the OFA patella. Is there a less invasive or damaging way to do this exam?

Dr. Francis Smith  54:57

Properly examining for patellas should not force the patella out of sight. There are a number of different levels of patella luxation. A dog that has grade four patella luxation, which is the worst, the patellas are already totally out of position. A dog with grade one, which is the least serious type, all the veterinarian really needs to do is flex the knee up and down and see if the patella moves on its own. So a patellar exam should never result in problems. 

Nicole Engelman  55:42

Great. Thank you for answering that one. And now we have one from a French Bulldog breeder who said: I participate in OFA suggested by the parent club, other than spine. My vet told me it's a waste of time and money to do the spine, as they are a small breed, and there will always be problems. What are your thoughts on this?

Dr. Francis Smith  56:00

Okay, so I don't think it's a waste of time or money at all. Is it absolutely necessary? No, but from the standpoint, if you really are a concerned reader, it is important to know if you have the changes in the spinal vertebrae, what we call hemi-vertebrae, or block vertebrae, etc., which can be associated with lameness or pain in the future. So knowing how many vertebrae may or may not be affected is good information to have as a breeder. And I'll just say pretend I had two potential stud dogs, and I did spine radiographs on both of them, and one of them only had one very minor change in his spinal column, and the other dog had sites in a couple of places throughout his spine where he had abnormalities. To me, it would be a no brainer. Pick the stud dog with the better back. Does that mean I would never use the one that has more spots? No. But failing to recognize that one could accidentally, over time and generation, accidentally select for spinal problems.

Nicole Engelman  57:30

Great. Thank you. This is one I think we're getting a few repeats of, so I will make sure I ask it. People are curious to hear what you think the real difference is between PennHIP and OFA radiographs?

Dr. Francis Smith  57:42

That's one of the most common questions you get, and I'm glad to answer that. First of all, I would like to say PennHIP was developed by a veterinarian named Dr. Gail Smith, who was absolutely committed to health and dogs and was looking for a good system to screen for hip dysplasia. So to me, well, there are several major changes. Number one: PennHIP is a closed database, meaning, if you send a radiograph to PennHIP, the owner and the veterinarian will get a report with a number on it that says what is called the distraction index, and that is a measurement of changes in the hip socket, indicating how loose or tight the hip is in that socket. And it will compare it to the statistics for that breed. That data is available to no one, unless the owner decides to share it. In contrast, if you do OFA radiographs and send them in, when you send in, that of a form, it says if it's normal, the results will be posted, and anybody can find them. If they're abnormal, that's not the case, but can owner can elect to show the abnormal. So if I'm worried about hip dysplasia, and I want to know what rating that dog got, I'm going to look up. We're going to say it's Buzz again. Talk of the town. He was an OFA fair. I want to know that, rather than know that his DI was 0.4, which doesn't compare it to anything else. So the fact that you can gather information as an individual is important. And additionally, the DI and the evaluation of the distraction index is based on the number of animals in the database. PennHIP currently—at OFA, we get about 400 radiographs a month, max. So PennHIP database is minute compared to OFA, and as in all statistics, there is strength in numbers. The last thing is, and people may or may not know this, PennHIP requires surgical depth anesthesia in order for it to be done accurately, and OFA does not require anesthesia. We recommend sedation. So for many people, that's the difference. I will also tell you—and this is my practitioner hat speaking, not my OFA  hat speaking—in my practice in Minnesota, I most commonly had clients who did PennHIP if their dog's hips failed OFA, because you always get a number, even if the hips aren't normal. 

Nicole Engelman  1:00:55

Amazing. Thank you. Such an in depth response for such a seemingly simple question. That's great. Okay, I'll try to wrap things up with just a few more. We had some questions about why some breeds require a cardiologist to do their OFA cardiac exam, and some breeds allow a general practitioner vet to do the cardiac exam. And this person was curious why that is.

Dr. Francis Smith  1:01:20

It's purely a parent club decision. There is no hard or fast rule. One thing I will tell you, it is difficult, many times, to get a cardiology appointment unless your dog has something wrong with its heart. Not quite as bad now as it was a few years ago, particularly during Covid, but you could not get a cardiologist to listen to a normal dog because they were so busy with sick dogs. So breeders wanted another mechanism where they still be clearing their dogs, but maybe not to the nth degree. So some parent clubs allowed the practitioner clearance, and also the breeds that did that, meaning the breeds that most often require the cardiologist—the Golden Retriever has a fairly significant incidence of a disease called sub aortic stenosis, and oftentimes you need a cardiologist to hear that. 

Nicole Engelman  1:02:28

Great. I think we have time for one more. This is a very well thought out question, so just bear with me as I get to it. So this person shared in recent years, many breeders have voiced concern that the OFA’s public facing model has unintentionally harmed genetic diversity and rational breeding choices by reducing complex orthopedic evaluations to a binary pass/fail metric. The data shows that despite decades of OFA use, the prevalence of clinical hip dysplasia has not significantly decreased, even when breeding pairs are both OFA certified. Meanwhile, the presence of mild subluxation or non symptomatic laxity can result in a fail, removing otherwise exceptional dogs from breeding programs. Given these findings, does OFA see a path towards evolving its public reporting or breeder education strategy to better reflect the nuance of orthopedic evaluations, for example, emphasizing heritability, clinical outcomes, and functional soundness over categorical labeling so that responsible breeders aren't penalized for transparency? Organizations like PennHIP do not use pass/fail language, instead using education and averages as a grounding rod to inform decisions. Is this something that the OFA could adopt? So I know I said this was a very big question. Maybe this warrants its own talk.

Dr. Francis Smith  1:03:46

Basically, I would say no, and that I believe it is unnecessary, in that the whole purpose of CHIC and our vertical pedigree program is to allow an individual—realize OFA doesn't judge, nor do I judge. My job is to educate. So that's why I use that example of the fair Labrador by looking at the fact that, yes, he's normal, and there are a zillion Labradors, so one could argue that, based on him being a fair he's not a suitable breeding dog. Now he is normal, but we have 1000s and 1000s of good and excellent. By using his vertical pedigree, I could preserve his ability to produce talent, and he was not lame and on and on. And feel comfortable that by using him as a stud dog, I was not likely to result in puppies that were going to be clinically affected, which, of course, is our whole idea. We never want to throw the baby out with the bathtub. And I will also tell you that there are scientifically solid studies that shows showing selection pressure of normal to normals. You increase steadily your percentage of normals, and there are none of those breeding trials based on the PennHIP data. Now I'm not saying that it's not true, but we don't have trials that prove that, and so the hard numbers prove in any breeding program, if you strictly apply the selection criteria, you make progress. The other big issue is (and again, I can use the Labrador), for many, many years, over 100,000 Labradors a year were registered. But yet, if you were to look at our total population, less than 1% of all the Labrador Retrievers in the country ever have OFA X-rays taken. So are there still dysplastic Labradors? Yes. Are there going to continue to be? Yes, because it's a complexly inherited trait. So I hope that's a good and fair answer, but we don't want people throwing dogs out for no reason.

Nicole Engelman  1:06:35

I think that was a great answer. Thank you for answering that one. I think those were all the questions we have time for, but thank you to everyone for submitting such great questions. I'm sorry we couldn't get to them all, but maybe this tells us we need a part two of this, because people seem to have a lot that they're curious about on this topic, which is great. But thank you so much again, Dr. Smith, for being here. We love having you here. We hope to see much more of you in 2026. Thank you to everyone who joined us, again for asking such incredible questions, and for being an amazing audience. I will leave everyone with a sneak peek of our very last educational webinar for 2025 and that's going to be an in depth exploration of TCI procedures with Dr. Joshua Trumbull, who has never joined us before. It's also a topic we've never covered before. So we're really excited about that. Keep an eye out for when we announced that. But until then, thank you all so much for being here. Bye. 

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