[Diseases with relevance to protection of animals with an example of the musculoskeletal system of dogs].

Protection of animals needs major concern in breeding programmes especially if inherited diseases occur which cause pain, suffering and/or damages for the animals. Dogs breeders and people keeping dogs as well as veterinarians should be informed about the etiology on sequels of diseases which cause pain to the animals and from which the animals have to be protected in order to make them more conscious on these problems and to achieve changes in dog breeding programmes. The information system "Inherited Diseases of the Musculoskeletal System of Dogs" should display the already published knowledge about etiology, pathogenesis, appearance, therapy and genetics of these diseases. This information system was built up in such a way that it can be used by students as a learning programme to understand the basic relationships among animal protection, diseases, and dog breeding. The user is also supplied with support for breeding decisions as well as for interpretation of breeding values and genotype probabilities. Additionally, information can be obtained on all in the German Association for Dog Breeding (VDH) represented breeds and breeding clubs. Actions to reduce genetically caused diseases required for members of dog breeding clubs are also available. The information system ist programmed by using HTML (Hyper Text Markup Language). Publication is possible on CD-ROM and on Internet. The supplied hyperlinks allow to make use of other publications on the world wide web related to dog and diseases of dogs.