Update on LTV situation

This blog post is summary of officially spine X-rayed whippets in Finland from years 2014-2019.

If you don’t know what LTV (lumbosacral transitional vertebrae) is or you want more information of it, please check my previous text about the subject (LTV and other spinal problems in whippets).

First I’d like to remind that spinal issues are not problem only in Finnish or even Nordic whippet population. It’s definitely worldwide concern and I can easily prove my point: In Finland we have relatively low COI (Coefficient of Inbreeding): during years 2008-2018 COI has varied between 1,01 and 2,13 % with 5 generations and between 1,76 and 3,69 % with 7 generations. I have calculated COI with using TWA (The Whippet Archives) so it’s more accurate than Finnish Kennel Club’s database (DogWeb). Number of registered puppies has varied between 184 and 294 per year. And during that same period of time, there were 247 imported dogs from all over the world. Dogs were imported from 28 different countries (Estonia, German, USA, Belgium, Lithuania, Sweden, Czech Republic, Poland, Netherlands, France, Denmark, Yugoslavia, Russia, UK, Italy, Switzerland, Norway, Slovakia, Canada, Hungary, Spain, Malta, Belarus, Ukraine, Romania, Latvia, Portugal & Austria). Finns are also quite actively using foreign studs from different countries. 

As you can see, our population is rather small and it’s mainly comprised of imported dogs or foreign studs and their offspring. Recently we had unofficial whippet show including “home bred” class, which meant that at least entering dog’s parents and grandparents had to be bred in Finland - there wasn’t too many entries in that class. So we definitely can’t say that this issue exists only in Finland, it has to be worldwide. Many of the dogs with different LTV changes are symptomless but I have to also remind that severe LTV changes exist also in racing lines and some of those dogs had been euthanized because of their severe back symptoms. So unfortunately “fit for the purpose” doesn’t protect dogs from this genetic issue.

Graph 1

Graph 1 tells us that official spine examination amounts are delightfully increasing year after year. One reason for this must be that Finnish Whippet Club is paying small refund for all fully spine x-rayed whippets (this means that examination includes LTV, VA and SP) and some refund is paid even if owner isn’t member of the club. X-raying whippets is still optional in Finland but breed club recommends it for all breeding dogs.

Graph 2

Graph 3

Graph 4

Graph 5

When we look at Graphs 2-5, we can see that it is really necessary to start paying attention for spines. Less than have of the x-rayed dogs have fully clear spines (LTV0, VA0, SP0). Although we have to notice that spine abnormalities range between minor and severe changes and fortunately most of the changes are small ones.

Graph 6

Graph 6 indicates that we are still missing huge amount of parental data and most of the x-rayed dogs’ parents don’t have their spines examined. I believe that situation will change to slightly more informative direction if x-raying trend keeps rising or it will keep itself on the same level as now and more and more breeding material would be examined. As I said earlier, our breed club recommends spine x-rays for all breeding dogs and during last year or two quite many of the registered litters has at least other or even both parents x-rayed.

Next I will be showing few graphs which won’t give us any solid answers because sampling includes only (!) 79 dogs which have their other or both parents examined. So this is only introductory data and we can’t make any firm conclusions out of it.

Graph 7

Graph 7 (41 dogs) could possibly indicate that Finnish Kennel Club’s general breeding recommendations (all symptomless LTV changes can be used but LTV1-4 should be combined with LTV0) could be quite useful when resisting this issue. It could be possible that using LTV0 could “protect” offspring from severe LTV changes even if other of the parents has bigger change (LTV2-4). I have to remind that sample is quite small at the moment and because of that still imprecise. So far there is none LTV0 + LTV0 combinations which has x-rayed offspring. Anyhow I found it interesting that there were 4 different LTV0 + LTV1 combinations which all had only LTV0 offspring (6 different dogs). But as I said, there is still quite small amount of dogs so coincidence can be playing too big role on this.

Graph 8

Graph 8: LTV1, LTV2 and LTV4 dogs has been used for breeding with unexamined partner and graph 8 tells us that it could lower the chance for LTV0 and increase the chance for LTV1-4 of their offspring. But again: sample is small!

Graph 9

Graph 9: LTV change to LTV change (LTV1-4 x LTV1-4) could increase the chance for LTV2-4 on next generation. But as I said many times before: remember the sample size! We need more data. Finnish Kennel Club’s Breeding Committee has said that because of the quite big amount of minor LTV changes (LTV1) in the breed, whippets could be paired LTV1 to LTV1 unlike other breeds. This is also only a recommendation, not any registration limitation. [And I personally think that it is way much better to pair LTV1 to LTV1 than using unexamined dogs which could both have severe symptomless LTV changes.]

We have to remember that spine examination like any other health screening result, dog show victory or racing or coursing win or title can’t be the only indicator for keeping some dog in or out of the breeding program. Dog is entirety. We need to take into account dog’s character, general (not measurable) health, pedigree, results from hobbies etc. And even if we use completely healthy dogs, there’s always a chance of failing and offspring is faulty. But that’s genetics and I hope that every breeder and puppy buyer knows that. Anyhow I think that gaining information is important - that’s one way for us to fight against the health issues and could help us try to produce happy and healthy dogs.

I will follow the LTV situation and I will keep doing these statistics and I definitely will publish something when I have some new material. In the mean time you can check my homepage - there’s a link list which includes different studies and articles of whippets, other sighthounds and/or heath. You can find also short cuts to different whippet databases and links to ongoing research projects. If you notice that something important is missing, please contact me!