KC Assured Breeders Scheme and Inherited Ocular Disease

As many of your will know in order to become a member of the Kennel Club Assured Breeders Scheme the Kennel Club recently mandated the following: 

“ALL breeds listed on the BVA/KC/ISDS known inherited ocular disease regardless of the condition will be mirrored as a requirement on the ABS scheme. Therefore whilst they do have a DNA test they do still need to have their eyes tested by an ophthalmologist”.  

We were surprised that our breed was included in this new mandate. 

We have been working with the KC to resolve this issue. The basis of argument being that there is no evidence to suggest that PLL can lead to other genetic or degenerative eye conditions and this, therefore, seems like an unnecessary hurdle for our Assured Breeders to jump.  It is our contention, therefore, that once breeders have tested and established their dogs’ PLL status, they should not be subject to further ‘routine’ or ‘general’ eye tests as this serves no purpose other than to incur additional expense for Assured Breeders.

We are delighted to say that toady we received news that the KC has accepted our arguments and as from the new ABS schedule in January 2022 the eye test will no longer be mandatory and will appear as a recommendation instead.

Good sense has prevailed!!

Mandy ( Breed Health Coordinator)