Prevalence of hip and elbow dysplasia in young adult dogs in Sweden

BACKGROUND: Hip and elbow dysplasia (HD and ED) are common developmental orthopaedic disorders in dogs. The study objectives were to report population-based estimates of HD and ED prevalence at screening in young adult dogs of different breeds and to evaluate the phenotypic association between HD and ED. METHODS: Data for dogs screened for HD and ED between 2007 and 2016 were obtained from the Swedish Kennel Club. HD and ED were graded according to the Fédération Cynologique Internationale and International Elbow Working Group, respectively. RESULTS: This study included 114,568 dogs from 72 breeds screened for HD and 78,504 dogs from 46 breeds screened for ED. The prevalence of HD was highest in the Dogue de Bordeaux (75.4%), Bullmastiff (65.1%) and American Staffordshire Terrier (64.2%) while the prevalence of ED was highest in the Chow Chow (65.2%), Dogue de Bordeaux (40.0%) and American Staffordshire Terrier (34.9%). A worse HD grade co-occurred with a worse ED grade (p < 0.001), and the co-occurrence was breed dependent. LIMITATIONS: Severe cases of dysplasia may be underrepresented as dogs with clinical signs of HD and ED at a young age might not be screened. CONCLUSION: Population-based prevalence estimates of HD and ED were reported. Large breed-related differences were found, and worse HD and ED co-occurred.