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Trends in popularity of some morphological traits of purebred dogs in Australia

BACKGROUND: The morphology of dogs can provide information about their predisposition to some disorders. For example, larger breeds are predisposed to hip dysplasia and many neoplastic diseases. Therefore, longitudinal trends in popularity of dog morphology can reveal potential disease pervasiveness...

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Autores principales: Teng, Kendy T., McGreevy, Paul D., Toribio, Jenny-Ann L. M. L., Dhand, Navneet K.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: BioMed Central 2016
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4820977/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27051522
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s40575-016-0032-2
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author Teng, Kendy T.
McGreevy, Paul D.
Toribio, Jenny-Ann L. M. L.
Dhand, Navneet K.
author_facet Teng, Kendy T.
McGreevy, Paul D.
Toribio, Jenny-Ann L. M. L.
Dhand, Navneet K.
author_sort Teng, Kendy T.
collection PubMed
description BACKGROUND: The morphology of dogs can provide information about their predisposition to some disorders. For example, larger breeds are predisposed to hip dysplasia and many neoplastic diseases. Therefore, longitudinal trends in popularity of dog morphology can reveal potential disease pervasiveness in the future. There have been reports on the popularity of particular breeds and behavioural traits but trends in the morphological traits of preferred breeds have not been studied. METHODS: This study investigated trends in the height, dog size and head shape (cephalic index) of Australian purebred dogs. One hundred eighty-one breeds derived from Australian National Kennel Council (ANKC) registration statistics from 1986 to 2013 were analysed. Weighted regression analyses were conducted to examine trends in the traits by using them as outcome variables, with year as the explanatory variable and numbers of registered dogs as weights. Linear regression investigated dog height and cephalic index (skull width/skull length), and multinomial logistic regression studied dog size. RESULTS: The total number of ANKC registration had decreased gradually from 95,792 in 1986 to 66,902 in 2013. Both weighted minimal height (p = 0.014) and weighted maximal height (p < 0.001) decreased significantly over time, and the weighted cephalic index increased significantly (p < 0.001). The odds of registration of medium and small breeds increased by 5.3 % and 4.2 %, respectively, relative to large breeds (p < 0.001) and by 12.1 % and 11.0 %, respectively, relative to giant breeds (p < 0.001) for each 5-year block of time. CONCLUSIONS: Compared to taller and larger breeds, shorter and smaller breeds have become relatively popular over time. Mean cephalic index has increased, which indicates that Australians have gradually favoured breeds with shorter and wider heads (brachycephalic). These significant trends indicate that the dog morphological traits reported here may potentially influence how people select companion dogs in Australia and provide valuable predictive information on the pervasiveness of diseases in dogs. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s40575-016-0032-2) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.
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spelling pubmed-48209772016-04-06 Trends in popularity of some morphological traits of purebred dogs in Australia Teng, Kendy T. McGreevy, Paul D. Toribio, Jenny-Ann L. M. L. Dhand, Navneet K. Canine Genet Epidemiol Research BACKGROUND: The morphology of dogs can provide information about their predisposition to some disorders. For example, larger breeds are predisposed to hip dysplasia and many neoplastic diseases. Therefore, longitudinal trends in popularity of dog morphology can reveal potential disease pervasiveness in the future. There have been reports on the popularity of particular breeds and behavioural traits but trends in the morphological traits of preferred breeds have not been studied. METHODS: This study investigated trends in the height, dog size and head shape (cephalic index) of Australian purebred dogs. One hundred eighty-one breeds derived from Australian National Kennel Council (ANKC) registration statistics from 1986 to 2013 were analysed. Weighted regression analyses were conducted to examine trends in the traits by using them as outcome variables, with year as the explanatory variable and numbers of registered dogs as weights. Linear regression investigated dog height and cephalic index (skull width/skull length), and multinomial logistic regression studied dog size. RESULTS: The total number of ANKC registration had decreased gradually from 95,792 in 1986 to 66,902 in 2013. Both weighted minimal height (p = 0.014) and weighted maximal height (p < 0.001) decreased significantly over time, and the weighted cephalic index increased significantly (p < 0.001). The odds of registration of medium and small breeds increased by 5.3 % and 4.2 %, respectively, relative to large breeds (p < 0.001) and by 12.1 % and 11.0 %, respectively, relative to giant breeds (p < 0.001) for each 5-year block of time. CONCLUSIONS: Compared to taller and larger breeds, shorter and smaller breeds have become relatively popular over time. Mean cephalic index has increased, which indicates that Australians have gradually favoured breeds with shorter and wider heads (brachycephalic). These significant trends indicate that the dog morphological traits reported here may potentially influence how people select companion dogs in Australia and provide valuable predictive information on the pervasiveness of diseases in dogs. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s40575-016-0032-2) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users. BioMed Central 2016-04-05 /pmc/articles/PMC4820977/ /pubmed/27051522 http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s40575-016-0032-2 Text en © Teng et al. 2016 Open AccessThis article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated.
spellingShingle Research
Teng, Kendy T.
McGreevy, Paul D.
Toribio, Jenny-Ann L. M. L.
Dhand, Navneet K.
Trends in popularity of some morphological traits of purebred dogs in Australia
title Trends in popularity of some morphological traits of purebred dogs in Australia
title_full Trends in popularity of some morphological traits of purebred dogs in Australia
title_fullStr Trends in popularity of some morphological traits of purebred dogs in Australia
title_full_unstemmed Trends in popularity of some morphological traits of purebred dogs in Australia
title_short Trends in popularity of some morphological traits of purebred dogs in Australia
title_sort trends in popularity of some morphological traits of purebred dogs in australia
topic Research
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4820977/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27051522
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s40575-016-0032-2
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