Analysis of the Hip Status of Golden Retrievers in Brazil—A Study of Health and Genetic Improvement

Hip dysplasia (HD) is an orthopaedic condition of the hip joints with a complex mode of inheritance that has proven difficult to address through traditional breeding practices in dogs, particularly the most common method, which is the selection by individual phenotype. Employing estimated breeding values (EBVs) into the selection would be a more effective method to reduce the prevalence of HD and would also enable the genetic trends to be monitored. The Golden Retriever is a popular large breed in Brazil, with a reported HD prevalence of up to 19.6%. This study aimed to estimate the breeding values (EBVs) of a sample of Golden Retrievers from Brazilian kennels using Bayesian analysis on a pedigree sample of 1686 dogs, 951 of them with known phenotypes. The posterior means of heritability estimated for hip score through the lowest deviance information criterion value model was 0.15 (posterior standard deviation of 0.08). The EBVs ranged from -0.299 to 0.368, with the average accuracy of 39% with values up to 67%. As expected by simple phenotypic selection, the genetic trend concerning hip scores has been stable since 1975. The study provides breeders with a valuable tool to make informed decisions about selecting sires and dams and contribute to long-term genetic improvement in reducing the prevalence of HD in Golden Retrievers.