Breeders Should Report Caesarean Sections, BVA Says General Chat

Malka · Oct 4, 2014

As I am not sure in which section this fits, I have put it under General Chat. If it is not in the correct section, would one of the Moderators or Admin please move it to where it best fits. Thank you.

VETS and breeders need to work together to ensure that the health and welfare of breeding dogs is paramount, the British Veterinary Association (BVA) says.

It was responding to the Kennel Club's plea that more vets report the caesarian sections they perform on bitches, after it was revealed that only a small percentage of reporting came from vets themselves.

Although vets should be encouraged to report caesareans, the BVA said, breeders should be ‘self-reporting’ as was stated in KC guidelines.

Recent statistics revealed in last week’s DOG WORLD showed that in the first half of this year only 3.6 per cent of caesarean reports were made by vets. In the first half of 2012 – a year after the introduction of the KC’s reporting rule – the figure was 2.7 per cent.

A recent article by Dan O’Neill of the Veterinary Companion Animal Surveillance System (VetCompass) evaluated what had happened since Pedigree Dogs Exposed in 2008 and Prof Sir Patrick Bateson’s subsequent enquiry into breeding, which concluded that current practices could compromise welfare.

Vets were still conducting health checks at Crufts and other shows, Mr O’Neill said, but although they were being encouraged to report caesareans and conformation-altering surgery on dogs registered with the KC, only 2.7 per cent of all caesareans reported to the KC in the first six months of 2012 were submitted by vets.

Since January 2011 the KC has encouraged vets to report the births of litters by caesarean section, in addition to any procedure which alters the natural conformation of a registered pedigree dog. A year later the KC stopped registering puppies from a bitch who had had two caesars previously, ‘except for scientifically proven welfare reasons ‘normally provided that the application is made prior to mating’. From that date, breeders were asked to tell the KC of all of a bitch’s previous caesareans, and the KC said it would take into account all reports submitted by vets, irrespective of whether they were submitted before this date.

To allow vets to report such operations, an additional section was incorporated into the form which notifies the KC of any conformation-altering operation.

Last week the KC was asked to comment on Dr O’Neill’s statistic, and secretary Caroline Kisko said that the figure for the first six months of this year had been 3.6 per cent.

“We are grateful to all of those in the veterinary profession who are reporting caesarean operations to us, enabling us to enforce our rule which states that it will not register litters from a bitch who has had two previous caesarean operations,” she said. “However, overall, the uptake of reporting among those in the profession has been low and the majority of reports continue to come to us from the breeders themselves rather than from the vets.
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Breeders Should Report Caesarean Sections, BVA Says General Chat

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Breeders Should Report Caesarean Sections, BVA Says

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