Genetically moggified answer to cat problem

Michael Ellison in New York

Thursday June 28, 2001

The Guardian

First it was the food on your plate; soon it could be the moggy under your feet. A biotechnology company in the US is working on producing a genetically altered, allergen-free cat.

The pets, costing up to £700 each, would open the world of feline love to the millions who are now excluded because they are vulnerable to hives, sneezes and streaming eyes.

"These are animals that are going to be loved and cherished and will bring joy," said Jackie Avner, wife of the prospective father of the genetic cat, Dr David Avner, 31.

The couple run their company, Transgenic Pets, from their home in Syracuse, New York. His day job is at a hospital emergency unit and they hope that the first example of their improvement on nature will be born in two years.

Carol Barbee, president of the American Cat Fanciers' Association, took a purely pragmatic approach to the development, raising no objections as long as the animals were not harmed. But she did say: "If they end up with something that's not a cat, that's not fine."

Ingrid Newkirk, president of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, said: "We tinker with animals and then we learn what we mucked up and can't fix. There are many things you can do if you are allergic to cats. You can have good ventilation, use a wet vacuum cleaner, have someone else brush them, and feed them a good diet."

Transgenic still has to come up with the £1.4m needed to pay Dr Xiangzhong Yang, who has the contract to develop the cat at the University of Connecticut. Then the Avners might turn to dogs, which have more allergens.

"There's been a fair amount of interest in using biotechnology to eliminate the problem of allergies in foods," said Val Giddings, vice-president for food and agriculture with the Biotechnology Industry Organisation, a trade group based in Washington DC.

"It's no surprise that people want to use the same techniques to eliminate other allergens."

Most allergic reactions to cats are thought to be created by a single protein with a gene known as "Fel dl" which was isolated and sequenced some years ago.

Dr Yang plans to take skin cells from a cat, grow them in a test-tube and then replace the Fel dl with a defective copy.

Next the cells would be fused with egg cells that do not have the genetic material; the eggs would grow in in an allergen-free embryo before this is planted in a surrogate.

Dr Avner, who says that the cats do not seem to need the gene for anything other than causing allergies, intends that the animals should be spayed or neutered so that no other firm can cash in.