Felines with Winn & Miller Grants
The Winn Feline Foundation, in Partnership with the Miller Trust, has awarded $116,5000 to fund five studies important to feline health. Among these are studies covering hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, the most common heart problem of domestic cats, as well as FIP and a specialized type of bladder stones.
The cat heart disease has been traced to gene mutations in Ragdoll and Maine Coon cats but not all breeds have been evaluated and the gene doesn’t account for all cases. So in this study, researchers are looking closely at Siberian cats.
Feline infectious peritonitis (FIP) is a deadly disease of cats, caused by infection with feline coronavirus that usually lives in the cat’s gut and causes no problems. But if it mutates, certain cats develop the disease when it infects the immune system. The study looks at differences between the gut versus immune system virus, to help better understand how the disease works.
Calcium oxalate is the most common urinary stone that cats develop, and can cause problems with urination including life-threatening obstruction. Little is known about the genetic influence of certain cats that seem to suffer from these stones. So the researchers plan to look at how bacteria in the cat’s intestinal tract may influence the risk and development of these stones, genetic influences and predispositions, and perhaps lead to new treatments.
Persian cats, the most popular breed throughout the world, can inherit progressive retinal atrophy (PRA) that leads to blindness by 15 weeks of age. (PRA has similarities to retinitis pigmentosa, a common inherited blindness in people.) The researcher plans to analyze genetic markers to try and create a genetic test that identifies carrier cats so they won’t spread the mutation.
For details about these studies and more about the foundation, please visit
http://www.winnfelinehealth.org/Pages/MillerTrust2008.html
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