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About SMA = Spinal Muscular Atrophy ! |
| The Spinal Muscular Atrophies are a group of hereditary diseases that causes a decrease of muscular mass or muscle fibre. ( muscle weakness ) |
| SMA in cats is passed on autosomal recessiv, what means that it is passed on "hidden". So two completely "healthy" looking cats may have affected offspring in case they are both carriers for SMA . |
| In cats you usually see the first symptoms at age about 14 weeks. The muscle capacity decreases rapidly and there are many different symptoms. Cats loose the ability to jump and they may stagger with their back part etc ... the life expectancy is realtively short since the cats are going to be more and more handicapped. |
| Since April 2005 there is a DNA test for SMA available. With this test you can find out about affected cats ( to secure a diagnosis ) or wether a cat is a carrier for SMA. |
| By
testing your cats you can make sure that you won´t get any affected
offspring. You should also work on breeding "out" SMA carriers from the Maine Coon breed by mating a carrier to a non-carrier cat and then continue the breeding with a SMA free offspring. To breed cats doesn´t only mean to be responsible for you own cats, it also means to be responsible for the whole breed !!!! |
| We are the first cattery from Austria that has all their cats tested for SMA. |
| This test is costing ( inclusive test kit ) 55$ for each cat and is done in USA by John C. Fyfe, D.V.M., Ph.D. and his Team at University of Michigan. |
| As
of 7th of october 2005 there have been tested 115 privately owned Maine
Coons ( pedigreed cats ). From Great Britain, Netherlands, Swiss,
Austria, Germany, Japan and USA. ( From Austria so far only our 5 cats ) Approx. 5% of all tested cats are positiv ( carrier for SMA ) |
| I want to thank John C. Fyfe, D.V.M., Ph.D. for this information and for his permission to use this information on my webpage. Also thanks for the help and answers to all our questions and thanks for the quick work on our cats SMA tests. |
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Fortunately we can announce that all our breeding cats are SMA free ( no carriers ) We have tested the following cats : McNalas Unique, Mysti Isle´s Shadeaux, Pantheracoons Jacky O (Jacky O. The Tiny Sphinx), Woodwitchs Lady Igraine, Mainewalk Galactica |
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| Interesting links to learn more about SMA : |
| http://mmg.msu.edu/faculty/fyfe.htm http://medicine.ucsd.edu/vet_neuromuscular/cases/2005/apr05.html
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| Contact SMA Test : |
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John C. Fyfe,
D.V.M., Ph.D. Email : fyfe @ cvm.msu.edu
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