What Is The OFA?

Question

What is the OFA and why is it important to have those hips, elbows, hearts and eyes cerf'd??? (where appropriate by breed, of course)

Answer 1

OFA is the Orthopedic Foundation for Animals. Their website http://offa.org . They are devoted to improving the health of animals and keep track of the results of health tests for dogs and cats. Originally they only certified and reported x-rays for Hip Dysplasia but they have expanded to include Elbows Dysplasia, Patellar Luxation, Legg-Calve-Perthes, Congenital Cardiac Disease, Thyroid disorders, Congenital Deafness, Sebaceous Adenitis, Shoulder Osteochondrosis Dessicans (OCD) and for breeds that have DNA test available for specific health conditions they record that. They also have partnered with CERF (Canine Eye Research Foundation) to included CERF results on the OFA website so there is one easy place to check a dogs health results.

As far as why is it important to test for and certify your dog free of those conditions, well responsible breeders want to produce the healthiest dogs possible and if your dog's parents have been certified not to be affected by a condition the odds of your puppy not having it are much much better. Personally I encourage my pet buyers to have their dogs x-rayed when they are neutered and give them a rebate for doing so. Of course the pups are too young to receive full certification but even preliminary reports help let you know if there is a problem that you otherwise might not know about and if they are done at 12+ months they will be recorded on the OFA site.

Answer 2

The OFA is the Orthopedic Foundation for Animals -- it has a site
http://www.offa.org/

and it certifies a number of health issues not just hips and elbows. They have set up, in conjunction with the AKC and various parent clubs, the CHIC site which is a database of health tested dogs arranged by breed -- each breed's parent club designates what criteria a dog has to be tested for in order to be included on this database -- it isn't difficult to do - my Sid was the first Doberman on it for months as the DPCA had set criteria of having to have a negative cardiac echocardiogram via a cardiologist as part of the criteria and I guess not many were willing so they changed it to 'optional' and then there were a lot of people willing to list their dogs. With the Dobermans they also have to have gone through a WAE, Working Apptitude Evaluation, in order to be included in the database - thyroid, hips, eyes and vWD testing -- I think that is all that is for the Dobermans right now -- other breeds you can check and they will show the criteria: http://www.caninehealthinfo.org/

I guess why I felt it was important is because the future of any breed is based in the dogs of the past and it is often difficult to know what a particular dog in the background of your dog had happening -- this is a database that can be looked at by anyone in the future when they are considering breeding and they can see what health testing/ results were done on the dogs behind their dogs so they might be able to make a more informed decision in their breeding practices. Before this all we had was memory (not always accurate) and word of mouth passed down comments that may or may not have been at all true. So at least now we have a source of information that is certified by the OFA, an objective data collecting source that has no real 'interest' in the results. I know our parent club also has a database site but it is restricted to members of the club's input and in no way is verifieable and could actually have people entering information that they have a conflict of interest regarding, so while it is 'nice', it isn't necessarily a terribly accurate source of information.

add: Actually they don't 'test' anything -- the radiographs for hips and elbows they send out to three selected orthopedic veterinarians among several they have contracted with and these vets give their input as to the potential for the hips/elbows being problematic. The OFA themselves are simply a data collecting group - they used to just be for hips/elbows but have expanded and include other testing results in their program/database. All of them are listed on the site but none of the tests are actually done by the foundation itself - your vet will usually collect blood samples and send to a university or testing facility and then the results are sent to OFA for the database. Cardiac results are entered by your cardiologis on an OFA form and sent to them.

Answer 3

OFA is an acronym for the Orthopedic Foundation of America. It is important to any breeding program to have the testing done BEFORE any breeding takes place because it gives the breeder another tool in choosing genetically healthy parents, which usually produce gentetically healthy offspring.
Imagine getting a puppy for your family, you have it for two years or so, everyone loves this dog, then the poor thing develops hip displaysia and can't walk. What do you do? Spend thousands of dollars on surgery to replace hips, then the dog gets arthritis by the time it's three and lives a life of pain or medication?
This can be avoided 99% of the time by testing and ONLY breeding dogs that test clear, or good/exellent.
Marti
www.borzoibeacon.com
www.havanesehappenings.com

Answer 4

The Orthapedic Foundation for Animals
They give out ratings on the hips and elbows and other bony sturctures in breeding animals.
It is important to chave the hips or elbows checked because if every one stopped breeding dogs that did not have an excellet or good hip rating we coule eradicate hip displysia in a few years.
It is important to have the eyes tested and a CERF certificate because there are several eye diseases that are common in many breeds that can cause the dog to become blind at a young age. One of those is progressive retnial atrophy. If you did not breed dogs who had it you could erradicate it as well.

Answer 5

OFA has a variety of different screenings. They evaluate X-rays and other tests for hip dysplasia, elbow dysplasia, Legg-Calve-Perthes, Shoulder OCD, Thyroid problems, cardiac problems, Patellar Luxation, Deafness, Sebaceous Adenitis, and various DNA testings. The results will indicate a variety of things depending on the test run. The orthopedic screenings can indicate whether the dog has the condition, and also whether they are likely to develop it in the future. There are different levels of results, and a screening saying the dog is free from the condition now does not mean they can not develop it in the future. Hip and elbow testing can not be done conclusively before 24 months of age, but there are preliminary screenings that can be done earlier. Most other testings are done any time after 1 year of age, deafness & DNA testings can be done at any age. Recommended re-testing intervals depend on the breed and the specific condition being checked for. BUT, re-testing IS recommended for many breeds and many conditions, specifically orthopedic conditions since joint condition can deteriorate with age. A breeder friend of mine re-checks her Boston Terriers' knees yearly for patellar luxation through OFA, and also has yearly CERF screenings for eye problems, since these issues are common in the breed.

Answer 6

OFA is the Orthopedic Foundation for Animals. It is important so that Orthopedic & Genetic defects aren't bred throughout a breeds population. Or so by selective breeding certain defects can be bred out of the general population so that superb subjects are the only ones that are bred and produced.

Answer 7

It is actually Orthepedic Foundation of America. It is an independant organization devoted to the evaluation of x-rays of orthepedic conditions in dogs, particularly hip dysplasia.
When you send x-rays to the OFA they have trained radiologists that look at them and compare them to standards that have been set in order to determine if the dog has, or will develope, genetic conditions that could be passed on to offspring.
All breeders should make it their goal to only breed for the betterment of the breed, therefore it is important to have animals cerf'd so that you are not continually passing on genetic deffects and reducing the quality of the breed by doing so.
Many conditions have become prevalent in breed due to breeding poor quality animals and due to inbreeding. This is what we are fighting to prevent by checking hips, hearts, elbow, eyes etc.
It's like if you had a debilitating disease that could be passed on to your children would you still have children knowing that they could go through that same pain and suffering??

Answer 8

The Orthopedic foundation for animals as some people already mentioned and in my case, as I am not a breeder, to make sure that the time, effort and money I invest in a dog will be well worth it. I X-ray any dog that I will train, BEFORE I start any serious training. A prelim will be done at 6 months and an OFA will be done at 2 years.

Answer 9

Orthopedic Foundation for Animals.
The test to see if the hips, heart so on are in prime condition so breeders aren't breeding dogs that do not match up to the breed characteristics. They want to lower the amount of genetic diseases in canines as well.

Answer 10

One must also keep in mind that the OFA hip tests as well as most cardiac exams and eye exams will pick up only subclinical affecteds (those who HAVE hip displasia, catracts ect but it isn't bad enough to show symptoms....
It's critical to not breed subclinical affecteded but proven carriers also need to leave the gene pool even if they passs the tests...