Expertise Centre Genetics of Companion Animals, Department of Clinical Sciences of Companion Animals, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Utrecht University, Yalelaan 108, 3584 CM, Utrecht, the Netherlands.
Department of Farm Animal Health, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Utrecht University, Yalelaan 107, 3584 CM, Utrecht, the Netherlands.
Prev Vet Med. 2019 Nov 1;171:104764. doi: 10.1016/j.prevetmed.2019.104764. Epub 2019 Aug 31.
Health issues in purebred dogs are currently considered one of the biggest problems in companion animal health. The Labrador retriever (LR) is one of the most popular dog breeds. The aim of this study was to quantify LR breed health in comparison with mixed-breed dogs (MB), by using four different data sources: a veterinary practice management system (appr. 35,000 unique individuals LR + MB), data from two animal insurance companies (appr. 15,500 and 4500 individuals respectively), and a histopathological laboratory (appr. 4000 individuals). After extensive recoding of the data, health parameters utilised to quantify breed health were longevity, frequency of practice visits and insurance expense claims, and diagnostic codes. A Kaplan-Meier univariate and multivariable Cox proportional hazard model were used to evaluate longevity. A negative binomial model was used to analyse the frequency of visits, claims, and diagnostic codes in both sets of insurance data. Logistic regression was used to look into the categorical diagnostic codes in the laboratory data. The median lifespan of the LR was similar (12 years, practice data) or longer (10 versus 8 years, insurance data) than MB for individuals with a known birth and death date. When including censored individuals, survival time in the LR was comparable to MB individuals up to 10 years of age. Above 10 years of age, the LR lived a similar length as MB with a medium to large body size, but shorter than all MB. The LR visited the veterinary practice more often (risk ratio (RR) 1.2, 95% confidence interval 1.2-1.3), and also showed a higher frequency of insurance expense claims (RR 2.2 (2.1-2.3) and RR 1.2 (1.1-1.3) respectively for the two insurance data sets). The largest difference in organ systems between the LR and MB in insurance claims was related to ears (RR 5.3 (4.8-5.8) and RR 2.6 (2.3-3.1)), followed by airways (RR 2.6 (2.4-2.8)), tendons & muscles (RR 2.4 (2.2-2.6) and RR 1.4 (1.1-1.7)), and joints (RR 1.7 (1.3-2.1)), without a difference in median age at diagnosis. The data from the histopathological laboratory suggested a higher disease burden related to oncology for the LR compared to MB (OR 1.2, 95% CI 1.0-1.3). Oncological diagnoses were made at a younger age in the LR (8.8 versus 9.4 years). The disease burden was significantly higher for the LR than MB, but these results may suffer from substantial bias such as selection bias towards the database, and different behaviour of LR versus MB owners with regards to veterinary care. In the future, longer term population data can corroborate these results.
纯种犬的健康问题目前被认为是伴侣动物健康的最大问题之一。拉布拉多猎犬（LR）是最受欢迎的犬种之一。本研究的目的是通过使用四种不同的数据来源来量化 LR 品种的健康状况，与混种犬（MB）进行比较：兽医诊所管理系统（约 35,000 只独特的 LR+MB）、两家动物保险公司的数据（分别约为 15,500 和 4,500 只）和一个组织病理学实验室（约 4,000 只）。在对数据进行广泛编码后，用于量化品种健康状况的健康参数包括寿命、就诊频率和保险费用索赔以及诊断代码。使用 Kaplan-Meier 单变量和多变量 Cox 比例风险模型评估寿命。使用负二项式模型分析两组保险数据中的就诊频率、索赔和诊断代码。使用逻辑回归检查实验室数据中的分类诊断代码。对于具有已知出生日期和死亡日期的个体，LR 的中位寿命与 MB 相似（12 年，诊所数据）或更长（保险数据中的 10 年与 8 年）。当包括截尾个体时，LR 的存活时间在 10 岁之前与 MB 个体相当。在 10 岁以上，LR 的寿命与中大型犬种 MB 相似，但比所有 MB 短。LR 更频繁地去兽医诊所就诊（风险比（RR）1.2，95%置信区间 1.2-1.3），并且保险费用索赔的频率也更高（对于两个保险数据集，RR 分别为 2.2（2.1-2.3）和 RR 1.2（1.1-1.3））。在保险索赔中，LR 和 MB 之间器官系统最大的差异与耳朵有关（RR 5.3（4.8-5.8）和 RR 2.6（2.3-3.1）），其次是气道（RR 2.6（2.4-2.8））、肌腱和肌肉（RR 2.4（2.2-2.6）和 RR 1.4（1.1-1.7））和关节（RR 1.7（1.3-2.1）），但诊断年龄中位数无差异。组织病理学实验室的数据表明，LR 与 MB 相比，与肿瘤相关的疾病负担更高（OR 1.2，95%CI 1.0-1.3）。LR 的肿瘤诊断年龄比 MB 小（8.8 岁与 9.4 岁）。LR 的疾病负担明显高于 MB，但这些结果可能受到数据库选择偏差等实质性偏差的影响，以及 LR 与 MB 主人在兽医护理方面的不同行为的影响。未来，长期的人口数据可以证实这些结果。
