Background(Evolution of the Breed Diversity and Cat Domestication Project)

In 1997, Havana Brown breeders were concerned that certain lines may have been experiencing health problems and because of the small breed population size, sufficient genetic diversity may not exist to improve the health of their cats. Dr. Lyons, then at the National Cancer Institute, was requested to assist the Havana Brown breeders in supporting a petition to the CFA to allow outcrossing. The outcrossing would diversify the gene pool, potentially inproving the health of the cats, but also providing more diversity that would potentially allow improvement in show quality traits, such as color and type. This petition would include data from a health survey, breed population size and history and genetic data to provide the most objective support of the petition as possible. This petition would suggest particular outcrosses to be acceptable for the geentic diversification, and hence the improvement of the breed's health. Although initiated by members of the CFA, this project was open to Havana Brown breeders from any association.

Outcrossing Program

It was critical to the petition that the pros and cons of the cats selected for outcrosses were throughly weighted and understood. Also, it had to be realized that not all breeders had to outcross, but at sometime in the future potentially use decendants of outcrossed cats. Also different breeders could use different outcrosses, and/or a could cat be first bred by other crosses to produce the cat to be outcrossed to the Havana Brown. Many different types of cats were considered and other breeds had to be consulted for the potential use of their cats.

Random bred cats

These cats certainly provided the most genetic diversity. Cats of good type and color could be selected. But, it would be unknown as to what potentially recessive traits or health problems these cats carried. A random bred with some known parentage would be a benefit. The traits that produced a good color or type in a random bred cat may not be fixed and difficult to reproduce in subsequent generations. Selection of a random bred should be done carefully.

Chestnut Orientals

Good type and color made these cats obvious candidates. Cats carrying points and dilution colors are the gravest concern. This concern could be alleviated by test crossing the cat to a lilac or blue pointed cat.

Foreign Havana Browns

Use of Havana Browns from out countries or associations would maintain the closest type.

Genetics

The genetics portion of the program was designed to include as many different lines and include as many different breeders as possible. Approximately 56 cats from 13 different breeders were genotyped with approximately 50 different DNA markers. The study concluded that the Havana Brown had approximately 1/3 of the genetic diversity of random bred cats, a level as low as the Florida Panther. But no comparison was available to other cat breeds, thus no determination could be made as to how diverse the Havana Brown was to any other breed. Hence, the collection of samples from other breeds was initiated by Dr. Lyons as a long-term study of domesticated cat breeds.

During this time, the first cat DNA evidence was used in a murder trial in Prince Edwards Island, Canada (The SnowBall case). Dr. Raymond and other members of the National Cancer Institute performed the DNA work for this case. In 1998, Drs. Raymond and Lyons and other members of the laboratory submitted a grant to the Department of Justice to develop a forensic database for the domestic cat. Dr. Lyons would be responsible for the sample collection and Dr. Raymond would be responsible for the DNA typing of the cats. Hence, the breed diversity study and the forensic database could be accomplished at the same time. The original list of breeds included in the grant were the breeds that are the "foundation breeds" and the most popular breeds. Both the UCDavis and NCI projects have been extended to include all breeds. The UCDavis project is also interested in collecting samples from breeds in other countries since these cats could be used as potential outcrosses if a breed needs to diversify.

UCDavis Breed Diversity Project

In November, 1998, Dr. Niels Pedersen initiated the recruitment of Dr. Lyons to the UCDavis campus. By September, 1999, Dr. Lyons moved to UCDavis as a Visiting Scientist, to start her own laboratory on feline and comparative genetics. Dr. Lyons appointment became permnament in July, 2000 and is continuing her interests to assist the cat fancy with breed health and management. The NCI chose to continue their forensic database development without the assistance of Dr. Lyons.

The UCDavis Breed Diversity project is designed to evaluate the genetic health of each breed. At least 60 samples are requested from each breed. Cats for the project should represent cats that contribute greatly to the breed, hence the cats that maintain the gene pool and will be the progenitors of the future breed make-up. Thus cats are requested from every possible line, from the major winners, such as top three best of breed, distinquished merit cats and cats that have been prolific breeders. Cats should be as unrelated as possible, but close relations are accepted since the cats that will be the breeds progenitors are the major importance. By default, any particular cat of a breed, whether pet or show quality, should be represented in the sample. This study will not include every possible DNA type for a breed, but show the overall genetic diversity of the breed. The same DNA markers as used in the Havana Brown Project will be included in this study, hence a direct comparison of all breeds will be developed.

Breed Results

Presented are some of the results of approximately 30 genetic markers in 20 - 30 cats from each breed. If less cats are presented, these samples were not yet available for the project. The analysis is only on seventeen breeds, which generally represent the parent breeds for others. We attempted to focus on the most prominent breeds, and the oldest breeds for the cat fancy. We would like to extend the project to other breeds, but will require support from the breeders to obtain samples and potential funding to perform the work.

Overall Genetic Diversity of Cat Breeds

Join The Project!

If you are interested in having your cat's DNA included in the project, please see the cheek swab sampling protocol. Sampling is non-invasive, simple and free. You will receive a DNA profile on your cat, a comparison of your cat to the breed and your breed to other cat breeds. We hope this information will be valuable to breeders for the continued health and management of their cats.

Cat Domestication Project

Since Dr. Lyons' move to UCDavis, important sample sets have been acquired that would be valuable for the determination of the domestication of the cat. Together with various wildcat, feral cat and breed populations from throughout the world, and the foundation breeds from the UCDavis Breed Diversity Project, DNA analysis of extant cats may predict where, when and how many times the cat was domesticated.

Reference

This site is under construction. Please visit again soon! We hope to have most of the site finish by November, 2000. Many of the current pages are the place holders for future information. Please provide suggestions to the webmaster: felinegenome@ucdavis.edu