A new study funded by the RSPCA has found that pedigree dogs are as healthy as crossbreeds, even though they are considered more prone to various disorders. Although some disorders were prevalent in pedigree breads, the prevalence rate was not significant when compared to crossbreeds. These disorders include common ones like teeth and gum diseases, joint problems and heart murmurs.

The study was done by the Royal Veterinary College and involved data on 150,000 dogs treated in the Midlands at around 100 veterinary practices in the past five years. The prevalence of 20 conditions were assessed by the researchers, and only three of them were found to be significantly greater among pedigrees- skin growths, obesity and ear infections. The prevalence rates of all the other conditions were not considerably different from crossbreeds.

The study was led by Dr Dan O’Neill, who said, “The central question of the research was to ask if the health of pure-bred dogs was worse than crossbreed dogs. The belief when we started this was that it would be. However, the outcome is there is not strong or convincing evidence of a difference between purebreds and crossbreeds in their health. This work does not show an overwhelming difference between the health of purebreed and crossbreed dogs.”

The crossbreeds analyzed in this study included mixed breeds, mongrels and designer dogs bred selectively. Dr O’Neill said, “My hypotheses was that crossbreeds would have a lower prevalence of common disorders than purebreds. But the overwhelming evidence for that has not been proved. There are some differences, but they are not overwhelming at a purebreed level.

There are huge variations within breeds and we should be looking at individual breeds and specific disorders in them.” He added, “It is wrong to focus on pedigree breeds themselves. There is this image of crossbreeds as wonderful paragons of health. In fact, they are just crosses of purebreds, with combinations of the prevalence you find in their parent. It is not that they are healthier overall and it is wrong to stigmatise purebreds. There isn’t an overall healthier breed, or an overall unhealthier breed – just variations. Rather than demonise purebreds as unhealthy, we should focus on where there is room to improve.”