Priority health schemes and tests
The Kennel Club's Assured Breeders must use the following (or equivalent) schemes, tests and advice. All other breeders are strongly advised to also use these.
- Hip dysplasia screening scheme (BVA/KC)
- Eye screening scheme (BVA/KC/ISDS)
- Elbow dysplasia screening scheme (BVA/KC)
- Eye testing - PLA (Gonioscopy) (BVA/KC/ISDS)
Important health schemes and tests
We strongly recommend that all breeders, both assured breeders (ABs) and non ABs, use the following (or equivalent) schemes, tests and advice.
- Bitches not to produce a litter under 2 years of age
- Bitches not to produce more than one litter within a 12-month period
- Check inbreeding calculators
Find out about a particular dog's results
Please visit our Health Test Results Finder to discover the DNA or screening scheme test results for any dog on The Kennel Club's Breed Register.
You can also view the inbreeding coefficient calculation for a puppy's parents, or for a dog you're thinking of breeding from.
Have any questions about health in your breed?
If you have any concerns about a particular health condition in your breed then you may wish to speak to your vet or you could contact yourbreed health co-ordinator.
Breed health co-ordinators are individuals working on behalf of breed clubs and councils who are advocates for the health and welfare of their chosen breed. They acts as a spokesperson on matters of health and will collaborate with The Kennel Club on any health concerns the breed may have.
To contact your breed health co-ordinator please email:
The Breed Health and Conservation Plans
Our breed health and conservations plans (BHCPs) use evidence and data to help us understand the health issues found in each pedigree dog breed. These plans help breeders and owners identify health and welfare problems and use information, health tests and health schemes to avoid passing on those problems to future puppies. They also support and provide breeders with tools and specialist expertise to help manage genetic diversity, understand the impacts of close breeding, and find the best ways to preserve the population of their breed.
Working together for the breed
We’ve worked with breed clubs and breed representatives to gather all available evidence to help us determine the priority concerns for the breed and decide how we can work together to manage and reduce these problems.
Breed priorities
The current key priorities for the breed are:
- Unregulated over breeding
- Autoimmune illnesses
- Epilepsy
- Cancers
How we plan to make improvements
We’ve agreed the following list of actions with the breed clubs to improve the health of the breed. Both parties are committed to working on these areas and will review these on a regular basis to ensure the actions remain focussed and relevant to the breed’s health.
Breed Club actions include:
- The Breed Clubs to continue to engage in research regarding Viszla inflammatory polymyopathy (VIP) and autoimmune disease, with The Kennel Club to assist in recruitment of dogs where needed. – IN PROGRESS
- The Breed Clubs to continue to collect information for dogs affected by VIP into a central database. – ONGOING (the breed have an online open registry where owners and breeders can report whether any of their dogs have been affected by VIP. This can be found here)
- The Breed Clubs to continue to encourage hip and elbow scoring in breeding stock. – ONGOING (the breed have hip and elbow screening as requirements under the Assured Breeders Scheme, and Estimated Breeding Values (EBVs) in place for hips. With increased testing it is hoped EBVs may be able to be produced for elbow dysplasia as well)
Our actions include:
- To continue to monitor epilepsy and autoimmune disease research and any projects where the breed could be included.
- To keep the breed informed as to the breed-specific epilepsy research, now hoped to be undertaken at The Kennel Club Genetics Centre, University of Cambridge.
- To investigate sharing the reporting database for breed immune-mediated concerns on its website. (a link to the open registry can be found above)
The full evidence base is available at the discretion of the breed clubs, however if you would like to seek access to the full report, please contact our health team here.
Health (The Kennel Club)
How do I use this information?
Breeders should be mindful of the top priorities in their breed and ensure they are working to reduce and eliminate the presence of these diseases when choosing to breed their dogs.
Puppy buyers should also be aware of these issues and be sure to ask their breeder how they are contributing towards the above actions, and whether any of these problems have been seen in their breeding lines.
