Genetic evaluation of elbow angles as predictors of elbow dysplasia in German shepherd dogs

Elbow angles were measured in X-rays of both elbows to elucidate the usefulness of such data for selecting against elbow dysplasia (ED) in German shepherd dogs. These measurements record the size, proportions and alignments of the anconeal process (PA), the radius (RA), the olecranon (OL), and the ulnar trochlear notch (UL). The reference system for evaluating the information content of the measurements was the score for ED (ED-SV) as recommended by the International Elbow Working Group. Data from 2645 X-rayed dogs born from 1998 to 2001 in 1331 kennels were analysed by using residual maximum likelihood procedures to estimate heritabilities, additive genetic correlations and residual correlations. The pedigree file included 11 426 dogs and contained ancestors for up to six generations. ED-SV was significantly influenced by sex, by age within sex and by month of birth. The elbow angles were significantly influenced by the month and year of birth, X-ray positioning of the dog's forelimbs, angle of elbow flection, litter size and number of dogs X-rayed by the veterinary practitioners. The following heritability estimates were found: h(2) = 0.18 +/- 0.04 for ED; h(2) = 0.76 +/- 0.04 for OL; h(2) = 0.52 +/- 0.05 for PA; h(2) = 0.50 +/- 0.04 for UL; and h(2) = 0.39 +/- 0.04 for RA. The additive genetic correlations of ED-SV with three elbow angles (OL, UL and RA) were close to zero. A higher additive genetic correlation to ED-SV was found only for PA, for which r(g) = 0.31. The distributions of predicted breeding values for susceptibility to ED were not affected by regarding the elbow angles as additional traits in the multivariate prediction procedure. Measurements of elbow angles were thus shown to be unsuitable for use in selection programmes against ED in German shepherd dogs.