I am considering breeding my Labrador.  Several people have asked about her OFA and PennHip status. What do these mean?

Both of these evaluations, OFA (Orthopedice Foundation for Animals) hip registry and PennHip are assessment tools to determine a dog’s potential to develop hip dysplasia. PennHip correlates your individual pet with other pets examined by their breed. This data relates the potential for your pet to produce offspring with hip dysplasia as compared to others of the breed.

The OFA model has been used as the standard for hip evaluation for the past several decades. This model requires a precise radiographic (x-ray) view of the patient’s pelvis. A veterinary radiologist reviews the radiograph and a subjective rating is assigned. The ratings are: excellent, good, fair, poor. The recommendations of breeding compatibility are based on these ratings. Specifically, dogs with fair or poor ratings should not be bred. Even those with a good rating are questionable to breed with other dogs. Again, the purpose of the OFA hip evaluation is to decrease the matings of dogs with potential hip dysplasia.

The PennHip evaluation was initiated in 1993 as a multi-centered clinical trial and is now offered throughout the country by certified veterinarians. PennHip evaluation brings together the sciences of anatomy, physics, and genetics. The process is very objective, and it is based upon multiple scientific calculations measured from several radiographic views of the pelvis. These calculations yield a value which is an indicator for the pet’s genetic likelihood, in relation to others of the breed, to pass the trait of hip dysplasia to the next generation.

Many breeders today currently use the OFA model as it has an established history, however, the PennHip system is gaining broad-range acceptance quickly. Much debate exists as to which evaluation is "better". The bottom line of this discussion should be that some form of pelvis evaluation is completed prior to breeding, especially for those breeds which have an increased risk of hip dysplasia. By doing this, additional generations of dogs may be spared the significant medical problems of hip dysplasia, and owners will be spared the significant financial repercussions of hip dysplasia patients. For further information, contact your veterinarian to discuss these evaluations.

This information, prepared as a public service by the Rhode Island Veterinary Medical Association, answers problems Rhode Island veterinarians currently are seeing in their practices, as well as new developments in animal care.