Impact of facial conformation on canine health: Brachycephalic Obstructive Airway Syndrome
Congratulations to Rowena Packer, Charlotte Burn, Anke Hendricks and Michael Tivers on the publication of their paper:
Impact of facial conformation on canine health: Brachycephalic Obstructive Airway Syndrome
This paper has come from the work of RVC Animal Welfare Science and Ethics group on effects of conformation and breeding on dog welfare. The research uses both exploratory and confirmatory studies, looking at both affected and non affected dogs to asses the link between conformation traits and Brachycephalic Obstructive Airway Syndrome (BOAS) in dogs. BOAS can be a debilitating, lifelong respiratory condition leaving suffers chronically short of breath and potentially having a significant effect on their welfare and quality of life. The results of this work show that traits such as thicker neck girth and short muzzle length associated with increasingly popular breeds such as Bulldog, Pug, and French Bulldog do increase the risk of BOAS.These results are intended to raise awareness for new puppy buyers, owners and breeders and to help them make informed decisions.
This paper has been published in PLoS ONE so is open access: click here to read
Please click here to link to UFAW's website for more information on the paper.