Southern Counties SBT Society

Health Co-ordinators' Report March 2019

Health Survey 

As all should know, a health survey was being conducted in the breed in

collaboration with the K C Health Team. The intention was to close it at the end of January

but as it was going to be impossible for Fern and Hannah of the Health Team to undertake

any analysis until after Crufts, the survey was kept open for a final push through 'flyers' on

breed stands and Discover Dogs and closed only on the Tuesday after Crufts. An analysis by

the K C health team has just been received but we shall look at it closely to see if anything

further needs to be done. Responses were received on over 1700 dogs which is excellent.

Basically it supports the belief that the Stafford over all is a pretty healthy breed. As expected

small numbers of a wide range of conditions were reported but none were at a level that

might give cause for concern. This initial analysis will be circulated to Club HC's for

comment.

Reproduction Survey. 

The K C suggested including a section on reproduction in the

prototype supplied for the Health Survey. At our suggestion this was omitted for two reasons

(a) the questions suggested were not actually concerning the health of the dog per se, and

(b) the subject is so wide, that it merits a specific survey on its own. Consequently it is intended

get one drawn up but it will be a few months before it can go 'live'.

BVA .

For many years, Sandra Webber the manager of the KC/BV A testing scheme supplied

annual data on litter testing and conditions not on Schedule A. This worked very well but

unfortunately Sandra retired and her successor Andrew Gillon also left when Crufts was in

full swing. The outcome has been that no results were received for 2017and 2018. We have

spoken to Hannah of the Health Team about the problem and with her help we are confident

the matter will be fully sorted. One concern was that cases of eye conditions of importance in

other breeds might not be getting reported, and thus drawn to our attention, because they

were not on Schedule A or B for Stafford’s. However we are pleased to say that none has been

reported.

Kirsty and Archie