CERF Exams

CANINE EYE REGISTRATION FOUNDATION (CERF)

The Canine Eye Registration Foundation (CERF) is an organization that:

• Maintains a registry of dogs that ACVO Diplomates examine and have found to be unaffected by major heritable eye disease.
• Maintains a research database which consists of information that is generated by all examinations done by ACVO Diplomates.

Pet owners and breeders can have a breeding eye exam perform by a boarded veterinary ophthalmologist (Diplomate ACVO). These examination findings can then be presented to CERF and in turn a registration number will be issue for that dog. This number can then be used to show potential buyers, breeders and researchers that this dog was free of heritable ocular disease. This certification is good for one year and the information from these exams is compiled to give ophthalmologists, researchers and breed clubs statistical data on the prevalence of specific ocular disease in a breed. The purpose of the breeding eye exam is to help breeders limit the number of dogs bred with heritable ocular conditions. For further information about CERF, please visit www.vmdb.org.