CLEARANCE NUMBERS

         Clearance numbers, in and of themselves, are pretty much meaningless. X-rays can be misread for bad OFA numbers, ChD is just a statistical number, CERF is only good for the moment it was done and the previous year, but the dog’s eyes could get a problem the very next day!  I pulled he following from the CERF site .....

While yearly examinations do not guarantee that the dog is not a carrier of genetic ocular disease,

Soooo .......?

they do ensure that within the last year,

WHAT??  Not for tomorrow, but for the PAST year!!  I don't care about last year!!!  I want to know about NEXT year!!! 

the dog was examined and no genetic ocular disease was diagnosed.

 Oh my, AND if I knew what to look for I could do the same on my grooming table!!!

If CERF clear dogs are bred, genetic ocular disease can be significantly decreased in each successive generation and eliminated in 6 generations. 

THEN it is no different, surprise, surprise, than coat, tails, fronts and rears. Therefore, I don't NEED a CERF number.  What I need is to know my dogs and to whom I am breeding.  Believing in the CERF number is nothing but a shortcut to the same unprovable location - the unknown future.  In many ways it is the same as Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle ... but I digress. 

So, in other words ... this eye stuff is no different than any other 'genetic' deal ... there are NO guarantees, period, oh, except for yesterday and last year!   So, hypothetical you, giving me a CERF number (certification for yesterday but not tomorrow) is, for all intents and purposes useless, And if I could get a handle on what to look for, seeing as how eye stuff is not so readily spotted as a crummy front or bat ears, I could make these determinations without a CERF, read (CASH), number.  Right?

This is the same as OFAs and ChDs ..... well meaning attempts to help breeders, but in fact are money making machines for vets and certain individuals and in the end do nothing for the animals themselves that a little honesty among breeders couldn't fix in a generation or two or three.

What a sad statement of affairs.

Hips, depend on the x-ray and how it was taken, the reader and how it was read and, again, there's no guarantee that the animal will not become affected later on. The same is true for elbows, shoulders, tarsals, metatarsals (LOL) and anything else for that matter. You really don't need a OFA# if you know your pedigree and foundation stock front to back do you?

         So what good is ChD numbers other than as another sign to others that somebody, presumably neutral but not always, knows your pedigree (the folks who calculate the ChD# - at least by these numbers if not by actual dogs) and that you've gone through the hoops to get this little piece of validation!! I mean, heck, if I knew the formula why couldn't I calculate it myself and list it??? In a way like the Coefficient of Inbreeding (COI) in most pedigree programs, why can't I generate ChD#'s??  To whit, I could then take a lesson or two from an Ophthalmologist and look at my own Mals' eyes and tell you whether they're okay or not, so why the "Official" bits of paper and the expense? Lets be honest, the only real reason we get all those tests and numbers on perfectly healthy dogs is as a shortcut to our own experience, to keep others happy, off our backs and the rumour mill at bay, although the rumour mill seems to have some form of "clairvoyance" even though they've never seen your Mals and you've got the x-ray and OFA#, ChD# and CERF# in hand!!! Sadly, there sure are some hurtful people out there.

So, that said ......

         What would REALLY be helpful, but pretty near impossible to get, would be a list of animals, pet AND show quality, updated regularly, that have come down with any one of the afflictions that we decide to use in the database - the list of affected. Coupled with a pedigree and list of siblings a breeder then could become somewhat more informed regarding breeding decisions. More importantly it would kill the rumour mill and even more important than that - this database of affected would give you a much better "map" of the problems within the breed, where they're going, how they're going, the "strength" with which they are proceeding, method of transmission perhaps, how to avoid it or how to deal with it.  Gosh, so many positives, eh?

         I would be willing to bet that this list of affected is a LOT smaller than everyone believes it is, especially Chd. However, the "unknown" is far more frightening and therefore more powerful in its misuse than the "known" could ever be. The fear generated by a relative few cases, given the total number of the whole, gives some people (and not necessarily the right ones) power within the breeder community. Personality clashes, envy, greed, "self righteous might" then become the motives, not the general health of our animals.  We could kill a lot of unsavory birds with that one "affected list" stone - that's for sure.