Breeders – General

13 Jan FELINE HUSBANDRY IN THE 21ST CENTURY: AN INTERVIEW WITH NIELS C. PEDERSEN

  What originally inspired you to author your book, Feline Husbandry: Diseases and Management in the Multiple Cat Environment? I needed to take a sabbatical leave and decided to stay at Davis and write two books.  I was going through a serious bout of depression, due both to my Scandinavian background and complete over-work and mental exhaustion.  I started the book Feline Infectious Diseases first, and used that as a springboard to the husbandry text.  I set a goal of writing just a few pages a day, and as you all know, if you even write one page a day, you will end up with a book in a year.

13 Jan PARTNERS IN SEEKING SOLUTIONS: UC DAVIS RESEARCHERS AND CAT BREEDERS WORK TOGETHER AGAINST FELINE DISEASE

The quest for solutions to companion animal disease can be a long and complex journey. To achieve success, veterinary researchers must use a wide variety of techniques and skills that include clinical work, laboratory experimentation and analysis, evaluation of related research, fundraising and grant writing, and above all, patience and persistence. Another key component is collaboration, which often involves academic colleagues.

 

But researchers at the UC Davis Center for Companion Animal Health and the Koret Center for Veterinary Genetics of the Veterinary Genetics Laboratory also work closely with community practice veterinarians, animal shelters, rescue groups, pet owners, and breeders to find ways to identify, treat, and prevent disease.

05 Jan FELINE HUSBANDRY

"Feline Husbandry", authored and edited by Dr. Niels C. Pedersen of the School of Veterinary Medicine at UC Davis, was originally published in 1991. The book struck a chord with breeders of purebred cats, is a respected resource covering all aspects of managing feline health...

16 Sep TAKING AND STORING DNA FROM LITTERS OF KITTENS

UC Davis researchers recommend that breeders take and store DNA samples from all kittens in litters after weaning, and label and save them in their homes. They should also include samples from the parents whenever possible.

24 Aug HOW CAN BREEDERS HELP WITH FIP RESEARCH?

Genetic research has great potential, but it takes time and money. Because FIP is a purely animal disease, there will be limited funding from sources such as the NIH. It's important to start banking DNA and assembling pedigrees showing relationships between affected and healthy cats.

24 Aug IS IT POSSIBLE TO HAVE A CORONAVIRUS FREE CATTERY?

This is extremely difficult, because the virus is ubiquitous in the environment and easily spread by cats and on people. Isolation of queens and early weaning has been touted in the UK and is used in the US. However, UK catteries are small and...

24 Aug HOW BREEDERS CAN HELP PREVENT FIP

Resistance is the ability of the immune system to cope with a disease. It is known that 50% of the incidence is heritable, and that resistance (or susceptibility) factors exist in both toms and queens. However, culling problem toms is the simplest genetic procedure to reduce incidence. Toms produce far more litters and kittens than queens, and therefore have a much bigger effect on the disease. Good judgment and husbandry will influence the other 50% of the equation.

24 Aug ODDS FOR LITTERMATES OF FIP KITTENS

Research indicates that if one kitten in a litter gets FIP, that the others are several times more likely, but this is not absolute. If the overall incidence is 5% across the spectrum of young cats produced in a cattery, it could be 10-50%...

24 Aug WHEN FIP HITS A CATTERY

Researchers know that genetics play a strong part in FIP - at least 50% of the incidence or more has a heritable component. They also know that susceptibility is carried both in paternal and maternal lines, but have suggested, at a minimum, that paternal...