Animals for asthmatics: breeders brought hypoallergenic kittens

Scientists eliminated a fundamental obstacle to buying a cat - an allergic reaction. After breeding on several generations of animals, a kitten was bred, which does not threaten the owners with allergic runny nose, tears and attacks of asthma.

The American company Allerca Lifestyle Pets claims that its scientists for the first time in the world brought cats that do not cause allergies in people. The animal is exotic, so that the price is appropriate: in Britain, for example, they are going to sell 7.5 thousand pounds (about 13.5 thousand dollars), writes The Times .

Initially, the company planned to genetically modify cats to make them less allergenic, but abandoned this idea, since animals could have side effects. It is assumed that this last word in the American industry of pets will help with relief to breathe about 2.6 million British asthmatics, in which animals provoke attacks. In addition, as researchers recently installed, if the house has a cat, babies have 50% higher the risk of eczema.

The allergy to cats causes a protein contained in the dying cells of the cat epidermis and in saliva, which falls on the wool when the animal "washes". Astmatika is enough to get an allergic attack.

Scientists from Allerca from San Diego analyzed the genes of British and American short-haired cats to find out which of them correspond to proteins that do not cause a reaction in people. Conducting cat selection for several generations, they received more than 20 kittens that do not cause allergies, writes The Times (full text on the website inopressa.ru ).

According to Allerca, the first tests on volunteers inspire optimism. Now the tests are conducted by Scrips Research Institute, a scientific and medical organization from California. Megan Young, General Director of Allerca Lifestyle Pets, who created a cat, said: "For the first time, people with allergies will be able to start a cat and not suffer from this. This is a scientific breakthrough." In anticipation of the patent, Allerca refuses to talk in detail about his program, noting only that cats are kept in quarantine premises approved by the Ministry of Agriculture. However, on the company's website, we note, already open.

One of the first owners of a kitten that does not cause allergies will be Jamie Grumz, General Director of Medical Technology from Florida. His eldest daughter, 12-year-old Maddy, is a strong allergy to cats and dogs, so neither she nor her six-year-old sister can have any pet. “This is not cheap,” said Grumz. “But I had animals as a child, and I think that children need it. It helps them to express themselves.”

Peter Sissonz, the BBC television and a lover of cats, called the new cats a "huge impulse", noting, however, that he could not afford it. Sissonza has an 18-year-old British short-haired cat, although the eldest of his sons and the youngest of their daughters suffer from asthma. "Now we have a very old cat, which we all love, but I do not think that we will replace it immediately after she goes into a large cat house in heaven," he said. While he is going to look at the test results of a new cat, and if there is a "breed of cats that do not cause asthma, this will change the life of asthmatics."

The attitude to the statement of American scientists in British society is different. On the one hand, asthmatics carefully welcome the appearance of a new breed. So, the writer Gilly Cooper, an avid feline, who previously held 40 cats in the house, and now, due to allergies, the forced will limit her five, so responded about the new breed: "If this did not damage the cat, it is wonderful."

Animal defenders are more critical. In his report, the Independent British Analytical Center "Council for the well -being of pets (RSPCA) spoke out against the selection of certain signs, if this is not justified by the benefits of the health and well -being of future generations of animals. One of the authors of the report, James Kirkwood said that selection should be carried out for the benefit of cats, and not just their owners.

In Britain, in the last decade, fashion is noticeable on the so -called "designer animals", including crossing dogs of different breeds for obtaining exotic animals. Labradudl's puppy (labrador + poodle) passes from hand to hand for 700 pounds, the same costs Pagl, combining the affection of a pug with the energy of the Bigla. RSPCA criticized such breeding: "This is an underestimation of the life of the animal. Genetic modification and selection can affect health, which will become noticeable only in future generations."