Respiratory function grading scheme (RFG) is a scheme designed by The Kennel Club and Cambridge BOAS Research Group to evaluate the severity of BOAS for brachycephalic breeds such as the Pugs French Bulldogs and English Bulldogs. This scheme helps in assisting the owners to know if their dogs have BOAS as well as to help the breeders by giving them the advice for breeding less BOAS potential patients.
The research plan was initiated in 2019 in UK. For now, there are 18 countries across the world ( including Australia, Austria, Belgium, Czechia, Denmark, Norway, Portugal, Romania, Sweden, Switzerland and Taiwan ) implementing this scheme. In 2023, National Taiwan University Veterinary Hospital cooperated with the local government officially introduced RFG into Taiwan, Dr. Nai-Chieh Liu ( with Dr. Jane Ladlow and Dr. David Sargan, founders of RFG Scheme ) is the first local veterinarian to advocate the RFG Scheme. As the principal veterinarian of Taiwan, Dr. Liu is leading a team of professional research team members to organize RFG scheme trainings and seminar for the local veterinarians. To their effort, there are now 60 veterinarians based in different district of Taiwan that are eligible to perform the RFG scheme. All the results obtained from the evaluation will be sent to the Kennel Club and the University of Cambridge for a global research, to improve the health of the following breeding.