The Canine Health Information Center, also known as CHIC, is a
centralized canine health database jointly sponsored by the AKC/Canine
Health Foundation (AKC/CHF) and the *Orthopedic Foundation
for Animals (OFA).
**CHIC Mission Statement
To provide a source of health information for owners,
breeders, and scientists, that will assist in breeding healthy
dogs.
Standard Poodle Health
Screenings Required for CHIC Designation
(Phenotypic health screening evaluations included only. Std
Pdls do have a genetic, DNA test for von Willebrands disease and
responsible breeders have this test run and register those results
as well.)
Hip
Dysplasia
Eye
Clearance
Health
Elective (One of the following tests)
CHIC Goals
- To work with parent clubs in the identification of
health issues for which a central information system should be
established.
- To establish and maintain a central health information
system in a manner that will support research into canine
disease and provide health information to owners and breeders.
- To establish scientifically valid diagnostic criteria
for the acceptance of information into the database.
- To base the availability of information on individually
identified dogs at the consent of the owner.
CHIC Benefits
Once in place and accepted within the dog breeding community,
the CHIC program offers benefits to breeders, buyers, parent
clubs, and researchers.
- For
breeders,
CHIC provides a reliable source of information regarding dogs
they may use in their breeding programs. In the future,
breeders can begin to analyze the pedigrees of a proposed
breeding for health strengths and weaknesses as well the
traditional analysis of conformation, type, and performance
strengths and weaknesses.
- For
buyers,
the CHIC program provides accurate information about the
results of a breeder's health testing. For diseases that are
limited to phenotypic evaluations, there are no guarantees.
However, the probability that an animal will develop an
inherited disease is reduced when its ancestry has been tested
normal. Further, as more DNA tests become available and the
results are entered into CHIC, the CHIC database will be able
to establish whether progeny will be clear, carriers, or
affected.
- For
parent clubs
considering establishment of health databases on their own,
CHIC provides the answer with no upfront investment required
by the club. The CHIC infrastructure is supplied and
maintained by the OFA. The data is maintained in a secure
environment by trained staff. The services are not subject to
the time, technology, and resource constraints that parent
clubs might face on their own. This frees parent clubs to
focus on their core strengths of identifying health concerns,
educating their membership, and encouraging participation in
the CHIC program.
- For
researchers,
CHIC provides confidential and accurate aggregate information
on multiple generations of dogs. CHIC information will also be
useful for epidemiological studies enhancing our knowledge of
health issues affecting all breeds of dogs.
- For
everyone
interested in canine health issues, CHIC is a tool to monitor
disease prevalence and measure progress.
CHIC Policies and Guidelines
The CHIC database is a tool that collects health information
on individual animals from multiple sources. This centralized pool
of data is maintained to assist breeders in making more informed
breeding choices, and for scientists in conducting research. In
order for data to be included in CHIC, test results must be based
on scientifically valid diagnostic criteria.
Breed Specific
Core to the CHIC philosophy is the realization that each
breed has different health concerns. Not all diseases have known
modes of inheritance, nor do all diseases have screening tests.
Some screening tests are based on phenotypic evaluation, others on
genetic testing. With all these variables, a key element of CHIC
is to customize or tailor the CHIC requirements to the needs of
each breed. These unique requirements are established through
input from the parent club prior to the breed's entry into the
CHIC program. Breed specific requirements typically consist of the
inherited diseases that are of the greatest concern and for which
some screening test is available. Each parent club also drives
specific screening protocols. As an example, one parent club may
allow cardiac exams to be performed by a general practitioner.
Another parent club may require the exam to be performed by a
board certified cardiologist. A club may also use the CHIC program
to maintain information on other health issues for anecdotal
purposes. Later, as screening tests become available, the disease
may be added to the breed specific requirements.
Identification
Regardless
of breed, each dog must be permanently identified in order to have
test results included in CHIC. Permanent identification may be in
the form of microchip or tattoo.
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