Labradors vulnerable to obesity, ear infections: Study

Labrador retrievers, one of the most popular dog breeds, are vulnerable to a number of health conditions such as obesity, and ear infections due to constant inbreeding, a study has found.

The study, published in the journal Canine Genetics and Epidemiology, also showed that chocolate-coloured Labradors in particular have shorter lifespans.

""Labrador retrievers are reportedly prone to many disorders but accurate information about how common certain health problems are in the general pet population is lacking," said Paul McGreevy, from the University of Sydney in Australia.

Researchers including those from the Royal Veterinary College, London said that this is the first study to include a large number of Labrador retrievers based on records gathered from hundreds of UK vet clinics.

"One interesting finding from our research is that the average life-span of Labrador retrievers was 12 years, but chocolate-coloured Labradors showed a 10 per cent shorter lifespan than black or yellow Labradors," said McGreevy.

"We also found that ear infections and skin diseases were more common in chocolate Labradors than non-chocolate Labradors," he said.

Researchers suggest that the higher number of skin and ear infections in chocolate Labradors may be due to genetics. Chocolate colour is recessive in dogs, which means that the gene for chocolate colour must be present in both the parents for the puppies to be chocolate coloured.

When targeting chocolate coat colour, breeders may be more likely to use only Labradors which carry the chocolate coat gene and the reduced gene pool may include a higher proportion of genes involved in ear and skin conditions.

Researchers analysed data on 33,320 Labrador retrievers and extracted data on disorder and mortality from a random sample of 2,074 of these dogs.

They found that 8.8 per cent of Labrador retrievers are overweight or obese.

The authors caution that the study may under-estimate the true number of dogs with health problems, as the data are likely to include more severely affected animals that require veterinary management and there may be lower reporting of health issues in less affected Labrador retrievers.