Health – Helse

Healthy Cats – Friske katter

Maine Coon er en naturrase, og i utgangspunktet ikke mer utsatt for sykdom enn de fleste andre katter. Når man avler på en begrenset gruppe katter, altså en katterase, så vil det likevel komme frem rasespesifikke problemer.

Seriøse Maine Coon-oppdrettere er likevel opptatt av å jobbe med de helseproblemene som forekommer i rasen, og har utviklet helseprogram for å holde rasen frisk i fremtiden.

Det er umulig å gi noen garanti for helsen til en katt hele livet. Ved å teste etter helseprogrammene og fokusere på lavere totalinnavl, håper vi å minimere risiko for våre kattunger, og å holde linjene friske framover.

Se vår Avlsfilosofi for å jobbe med forbedring av helse i rasen

 

The Maine Coon is a natural breed of cats, and normally not more at risk for health issues than most cats. Breeding within a closed population, a cat breed, will however give breed specific problems. Serious Maine Coon breeders are still concerned by those health issues we find in the breed, and have developed health programmes to keep the breed healthy in the future.

It is impossible to guarantee the health of a cat throughout his or her life. By testing according to the health programmes and focusing on lower inbreeding, we hope to have minimized risk of illness for our kittens, and to keep the lines healthy.

See our Breeding Philosophy how we work towards better health in the breed

The two most important genetic health issues for the Maine Coon breed are HCM and HD, and we follow the PawPeds health programmes for these.

Screening before breeding – Testing av avlskatter

 

 

HCM hjertesykdom – Heart Disease

HCM er en hjertesykdom som fins hos alle katter, også vanlige huskatter (ca 10-15 %). Det er den vanligste hjertelidelsen hos katt. Hypertrofisk kardiomyopati betyr at hjerteveggene fortykkes, og gjør hjertet lite effektivt. Hjertet kan da stoppe, eller katten kan utvikle blodpropp.

Det fins én kjent mutasjon som gir risiko for HCM, men også flere andre ukjente faktorer. Derfor er hjerteultralyd hos kardiolog veterinær nødvendig for avlskatter, for å sikre at ikke katter med hjertelidelse avles på.

 

HCM is a heart disease that can be found in all cats, also housecats (appr 10-15 %), and it is in fact the most common heart problem in cats. Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy means thickening of the heart walls, that make the heart ineffective. The heart can stop, or the cat can get blood clots and die.

We DNA-test and scan (ultrasound) all our breeding animals according to the PawPeds health programme.

Read more – les mer om HCM

 

HD – Hip Dysplasia

Hofteleddsdysplasi er dessverre ganske vanlig i Maine Coon-rasen. Ny forskning viser at 37 % av MCO har HD i en eller annen grad. Avlskatter bør HD-røntges før avl.

Recent research shows that 37 % of all Maine Coons have Hip Dysplasia to some degree. All Maine Coon should always be HD X-rayed before breeding to check status and assess risk for the combination.

 

What is known is that the risk of getting a cat with HD is much smaller if both parents have normal hips. HD is considered recessive and polygenetic.

  • 25-37 % of all Maine Coons have HD of some degree
  • approximately 10 % have moderate or severe HD and should not be used for breeding
  • offspring from Normal-Normal combinations have much lower risk for serious HD

Click to read more – Les mer om HD

 

 

SMA – DNA-test

SMA, Spinal Muscular Atrophy, is a very rare disease among Maine Coons. Possibly only 1 in about 7000 cats get it. It is however quite serious for those animals who are affected, so to be on the safe side, our breeding animals are tested for the mutation. Only cats with the double gene (homozygous positive) will get ill.

Click to read more – les mer om SMA

 

PK-deficiency – DNA-test

PK-deficiency (Pyruvat Kinase deficiency) is quite recently discovered in Maine Coons as well as a lot of other breeds. It seems around 15 % of all Maine Coons carry this mutation.

Testing for it is very easy, and only animals with “the double gene” (homozygous positive) are affected and will likely get ill. As long as breeders do not breed carrier to carrier, the animals will stay healthy. All our breeding animals are tested for this gene.

Click to read more about PK.

 

Blood type B – DNA-test

Most Maine Coon have blood type (blood group) A. Blood type B also exists, and it is a recessive trait. It means some cats with blood type A are carriers of B. Around 3 % of Maine Coons are B, whereas around 17 % are carriers of B and can produce B kittens if mated.

Blood type B is not a disease, but breeding queens with blood type B can create huge problems for her kittens, so we do not wish to use B cats in our breeding.

All our breeding cats have their blood type DNA tested, and if we are uncertain, we also do a serological test for actual blood type.

Click to read more (in Norwegian)

 

Inbreeding and Genetic Variation

Inbreeding in general can lead to several health problems for a breed. We will try to keep complete inbreeding below average for Maine Coons, and have focus on genetic variation. We focus a lot on percentages for complete inbreeding and keep inbreeding to zero for the first 5 generations.

Most Maine Coons in Europe today get over 70 % of their genes from only 5 Maine Coon foundation cats. This is a serious concern for long term health. See the Maine Coon history for more information on genetic variety in Maine Coon. It is important to work with genetic variation in the breed.

Inbreeding in general might also lead to a weakened immune system and thus perceptibility to diseases like FIP, cancer and tooth and gum problems. It is known through population genetics that the immune system is weakened  (Lorimer 1998) by having a small gene pool, and avoiding a large degree of inbreeding is the best way to avoid these kinds of problems.

Click to read more about genetic variation.

 

Nature or Nurture?

Health problems in Maine Coon can be:

Hereditary (congenital) – caused by a harmful mutation (i.e. SMA and HCM1-A31P) or several mutations (i.e. Hip Dysplasia)

Genetiske/arvelige lidelser, forårsaket av enkeltmutasjoner, eller skade/mutasjoner i flere gener. Sykdommen er arvet av foreldre, og kan gå i arv til akom.

 

Extreme type selection – caused by anatomical problems like Entropion or undershot chin

Ekstremavl, der ekstreme anatomiske trekk utvelges i generasjon etter generasjon, slik at anatomien for de som arves mest av det ekstreme eksteriøret får store plager, f eks øyesykdommen entropion, eller underbitt som kan gi plager. Pusteproblemene hos en del kortsnutete hunder og katter kommer av ekstremavl.

 

Environmental, caused by things like food or parasites

 

 

 

Helsebiblioteket

– har mer informasjon om flere problemer og sykdommer

 

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