Question true feline aficionados about registered breeds of cats and you may just end up in a fistfight.
This year some 15 new cat breeds have been recognized. But it depends on what association of cat owners and breeders you talk to.
There are basically three main associations that recognize new breeds. That alone may get the fistal truculence started. There are people breeding cats both day and night trying to get breed recognition from one of these organizations. Breed recognition is very limited, and the numbers may surprise readers. The International Cat Association recognizes 71 breeds, the Cat Fanciers Association names 44, and the Federation Internationale Feline has the shortest list with a mere 43.
Which organization one belongs to is a bigger dust-up than a family Thanksgiving dinner when drunk uncles bust up the furniture trying to convince one another who is the better Republican.
This column arose from a worldwide news story claiming a new breed of cat, now called the salmiak, had arisen out of Finland in 2007. The term is Swedish and refers to a specific, extra salty licorice candy favored by both the Swedes and the Finns. Now, who likes the candy better, Swedes or Finns, and who developed it first can result in a biffo, too.
So, what does this kitty look like? If you can imagine mostly short-haired cats with the finest, most well distributed salt and pepper hair pattern, you’ve got it. Each hair is black near the base but then grows in white near the tip end. Some of the cats have white faces or white and black faces, and white bellies or paws. Others have a white throatlatch, to use an equine term.
When scientists looked at these new cats, they started to wonder just how the genetics worked out. Among DNA jockeys who study coat and hair colors in different animals and people, the genetics are somewhat well understood. In the animal world though, because people are constantly breeding different looking animals to one another, that DNA deck keeps getting reshuffled.
What the scientists found was unexpected. The coat color was a phenotype, meaning how something appears nevertheless because of the animal’s genetics. When the researchers checked for mutations where the white coat colors normally reside on the cat’s genome, there were no mutations.
Next, the team from the University of Helsinki focused on the KIT gene sequence. Variants found here in other cats result in different white coat color patterns. Again, they came up empty.
Now, it was time to look at these cute cats’ whole genome and see how it varied from other domestic cats. Near the KIT gene but further on, there was a large mutation. About 95,000 of the base pairs usually there in other cats were simply missing.
Summoning owners to bring in their cats for genetic testing found more intriguing things. Salmiak cats had two copies of the 95,000 missing base pairs. Other regular house cats had one such mutation but did not have the salmiak coat color. Still other house cats that did not look like salmiak cats did not have the mutation at all.
The downside of this work was the small numbers of animals available to test. The results imply, though, that the missing chunk of DNA normally found in cats may influence how the KIT gene is expressed and whether the mutation breeds true thus establishing a registerable breed.
Now where and if the cats get registered formally is another matter. Registration matters because it means higher prices for the kittens.
Powell, of Pullman, retired as public information officer for Washington State University’s College of Veterinary Medicine in Pullman. This column reflects his thoughts and no longer represents WSU. He may be contacted at charliepowell74@gmail.com.
