Science Newsletter Vol.10: December 2020
In This Issue
The Gene for Ticked Tabby is Found! | Ask a Vet: Why is My Cat Peeing There? | The Search for a Genetic Component of FIP | The Pandemic and our Senior Cats | Cats on Raw Meat Diet May Have Passed Tuberculosis to Humans, Study Finds | TICA 2020 Election Results | TICA Wishes all our Members a Happy Holiday | Holiday Greetings from TICA Regional Directors: | TICA 2020 Holiday Guide: Gifts to Delight all the Felines and Cat Lovers on Your List | TICA December Breed of the Month: Japanese Bobtail | Check out TICA’s top social media posts you may have missed… | Top 10 Feline New Year’s Resolutions
The Gene for Ticked Tabby is Found!
Geneticist Christopher Kaelin and his team from the HudsonAlpha Institute for Biotechnology have just published their discovery of the gene that causes the ticked pattern in tabby cats. The Wnt inhibitor protein encoded by the Dickkopf 4 (Dkk4) gene is modified by two variants, either of which is sufficient to reduce the appearance of tabby striping. One variant was seen in the Oriental family cats that were sequenced, while both variants were seen in the Abyssinian and Singapura breeds, including Cinnamon, the Abyssinian that was the first cat to have her entire genome sequenced. They also found that tabby pattern in cats is established at the embryological age of only 16 days, a week before the pigment producing cells migrate into the layer of the skin that contains the developing hair follicles.
Read the complete journal article.
The authors thanked TICA for their assistance in obtaining samples from pedigreed cats, including the work of cat fanciers Anthony Hutcherson, Valerie Smith, Adriana Kajon, and Gulnaz Sharifzyanova. Community cat samples were obtained from Trap-Neuter-Release programs in California.
Ask a Vet: Why is My Cat Peeing There?
Dr. Genie Bishop, a private practice veterinarian for 30 years and instructor of medicine and surgery in a veterinary technician program, prior to joining Royal Canin as their Scientific Communications Manager, has shared her expertise on feline litterbox habits. Read the comprehensive article from Royal Canin on troubleshooting elimination problems.
The Search for a Genetic Component of FIP
An update has been released on a UK study funded by the Winn Feline Foundation to explore the hypothesis that mutations in key inflammatory pathway genes may be associated with increased susceptibility to Feline Infectious Peritonitis. One genetic variant of the interferon-gamma gene was associated with a reduced risk of developing FIP in cats. However, this variant was present in 16% of cats with FIP and absent in 66% of unaffected cats in the general population. No consistent correlation between FIP status and variants in the interferon-gamma (IFNG), tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNFA) and dendritic cell-specific intercellular adhesion molecule-grabbing non-integrin (CD209) genes could be found.
Read the abstract of this journal article with links to the initial studies supporting this hypothesis.
The Pandemic and our Senior Cats
Many cat owners are delaying seeking veterinary attention for their cats in these difficult times. Unfortunately, cats are masters at hiding signs of disease, so regular wellness exams are important, especially for our seniors. Veterinary offices have set up protocols to ensure the safety of you, their staff, and your feline family. Read this article from the American Association of Feline Practitioners about staying alert to the special needs of our older feline friends.
Cats on Raw Meat Diet May Have Passed Tuberculosis to Humans, Study Finds
The source of a tuberculosis outbreak in pet cats in the UK was traced to raw food, which has since been recalled, and four owners of infected cats were also found to have latent Tuberculosis, according to veterinary researchers at the University of Edinburgh. Read how the owners may have picked up Mycobacterium bovis from handling the raw food or from the infected cats and other findings from the investigation.
TICA News Briefs
TICA 2020 Election Results
“TICA Election results are in and I’m privileged to announce that I will be handing over my Presidential gavel to Vicki Jo Harrison as of January l, 2021,” announced TICA President Vickie Fisher. “Ralph Stadter has been re-elected as your Vice President. Please help me in congratulating them!
Let me also say that I appreciate the willingness of the other candidates for these important positions to step forward. Thanks so much Steven Meserve, Luiz Paulo Faccioli, Anthony Hutcherson, Jamie Christian, and Barb Kissinger.
We all appreciate your commitment to TICA. Thanks, also, to everyone who voted!”
Full election results include:
Election Results – President, Vice President, Breed Committees
2020 Combined Ballot Proposals
2020 Board Ballots
Vicki Jo Harrison TICA President-Elect Acceptance:
“My sincere thank you for choosing me to represent you as President of this member-driven organization,” said TICA President-Elect, Vicki Jo Harrison. “We are the best Association in the world and it’s all thanks to the amazing members who are willing to step-up and volunteer their time for this hobby that we all love so dearly.
I would like to congratulate Ralph Stadter on winning the election and sincerely thanks those who ran for office; Steven Meserve, Jamie Christian, Luiz Paulo Faccioli, Anthony Hutcherson and Barb Kissinger. Additionally, thank you to those 173 members that ran for breed committee.
I also want to take this time to thank Vickie Fisher for her leadership and passion in taking TICA to the next level. Your dedication to TICA shows through with all of the superb enhancements we’ve seen (and will be seeing in the next 6+ months).
It really does take a village to run this ship and I have every confidence that between the Executive Office, COO Danny Nevarez, and our Board of Directors, we can continue the momentum.
We have a lot of work to do to move forward in supporting TICA’s growth around the world. Next month I will outline some of the projects we will be focusing on in 2021. There are many opportunities all over the world to bring our members and their love of cats together. I look forward to serving as your next President.”
Ralph Stadter TICA Vice President Acceptance:
“I would like to thank you for your support and the trust you placed in me in the elections,” said TICA Vice President Ralph Stadter.
“I would also like to congratulate Vicki Jo Harrison on being elected President. I will do my best to support her as well as Danny Nevarez and Frances Cardona. Furthermore, I would like to thank Steven Meserve, Jamie Christian, Luiz Paulo Faccioli, Anthony Hutcherson and Barb Kissinger for running as candidates in the elections.
In the time leading up to the elections we heard and discussed a number of wonderful ideas and concepts. I sincerely hope that we will take on some of these ideas and make them part of TICA’s future. One of the wonderful things about our association is that it doesn’t matter whether you are an elected officer or a member – if you are motivated and can convince enough people, you can affect the change you want to see.”
TICA News Briefs
TICA Wishes all our Members a Happy Holiday
TICA announced a new partnership with AKC Reunite during the September Annual Board Meeting. The new alliance will offer TICA members great deals on helping owners and breeders keep their cats safe, as well as the opportunity to earn FREE microchips.
AKC Reunite are 134.2 kHz ISO pet microchips that provide permanent identification, to ensure your cat a safety net if it gets lost or is stolen. Chips can be obtained with or without prepaid (lifetime) enrollment. Both Mini chips (Indi Minichips) and standard-sized chips are available for purchase. A special HUB is also available for breeders to track and maintain their cats with chips. A special Enrollment Rewards Program is also available to TICA member where they can earn points for free microchips with every kitten registered and when the standard enrollment fee paid. For example, 25 points can be redeemed for a 25-count box of microchips.
Learn more at www.akcreunite.org/TICA/.
Holiday Greetings from TICA Regional Directors:
TICA Great Lakes Region:
TICA Mid Atlantic Region:
TICA Northeast Region:
TICA Northwest Region:
TICA South Central Region:
TICACats will host TICA’s 2021 Annual, “Cats and Wine on the Rhine“, on September 4-5, 2021 at the Friedrich-Ebert-Halle in Ludwigshafen, Germany. The Annual Awards Banquet 2021 will take place at the show hotel Dorint Congress Hotel Mannheim the evening of Sept. 4, 2021.
Confirmed judges to date include: Steven Savant(AB), Aline Noel Garel(AB), Robby Whyte(AB), Carlos Lopez(AB), Harley DeVilbiss(AB), Katharina Krenn(SP), Marion Schiff(AB), Asa Broing(AB), Steven Corneille(AB), Andreas Kretschmer-Kraiczek(SP), Richard Hoskinson(AB), Jamie Christian(AB), Susanna Shon(AB), Steven Meserve(AB).
Entries are open and more information can be found on TOES. Contact the entry clerks for clerking assignments: entryclerk@ticacats.de. Stay tuned for the show website, coming soon.
Advancements in the TICA Judging Program
Congratulations! The TICA Board approved the following for advancements to the TICA Judging Program:
- Provisional AB: Nicki Fenwick Raven (UK)
- Approved AB: Sue Hart-Jones (UK)
TICA December Breed of the Month: Japanese Bobtail
Shh … come closer … I have a secret to tell you. In fact, I’m going to tell you one of the best kept TICA secrets.
What’s that you might ask? Why, the TICA Yearbook! A yearbook you say? Well sit down and let me tell you.
The TICA yearbook is a full-color, hardbound book that is published each year containing the pictures of all international, regional, and breed winners from the prior show season. That’s right, want to see pictures of your breed shown in other regions around the world? Showing a household pet? See all the household pet beauties. And feel the pride of seeing your winning cat pictured forever as part of TICA’s history.
And that’s not all. You can see pictures of cats that accomplished titles throughout the year as well as remembering cats that have passed over the rainbow bridge. Still not enough? See pictures of all the people who help keep our organization going.
And the memories keep on going with pictures taken from events from all over TICA’s world.
Excited? Want to start your own collection of TICA’s history or add to your existing collection with the edition covering the 2019-2020 show season?
First, reserve your 2020 yearbook by sending in a Yearbook order form. You can also use that form to pay to include pictures in the yearbook that are not included for free, for example in memory, title pictures, and some awards. Then, make sure you send all your award winner’s pictures to the Yearbook editor, Chris Unangst, no later than September 20th.
And just as important, send pictures you have taken at shows during the 2019-2020 show season to Chris as well. She wants to include pictures from around TICA’s world, but can only include those sent, so make sure your region and country is well represented. What’s that? You’re excited and can’t wait for the yearbook to arrive at your house? Well, you need to be a little patient. It takes a while to pull together an entire year’s history after the show season ends. The 2020 yearbook, covering the 2019-2020 show season, will be shipped out world-wide in early 2021, but will be worth the wait. The yearbook is TICA’s history in a form that you can hold in your hands and display on your living room table. Don’t miss out!
Check out TICA’s top social media posts you may have missed…
Check out TICA’s social media pages to learn the latest news about cats. Here are some top posts you may have missed…
On TICA’s Instagram:
Meet, Reba, the one-eyed show cat.
On TICA’s Facebook:
On TICA’s Twitter:
Felis Historica is the magazine for all things feline.
Top 10 Feline New Year’s Resolutions
Known for their love of water, the Snowshoe is TICA’s September Breed of the Month. Learn how this mellow breed is born completely and develops point colors as they mature and if the Snowshoe is right for you and your family.
