Videos Munchkin Breed Information
The munchkin is a relatively new breed created by a mutation that causes achondroplasia, or possibly hypochondroplasia, resulting in
cats with abnormally short legs. The
breed originated in 1983 when Sandra Hochenedel found an extremely
short-legged black cat living under a trailer in Louisiana. This cat, named Blackberry, was
pregnant and half of her kittens were born short-legged. One of
Blackberry's kittens, a tomcat named
Toulouse, became the father of a breeding program that established
the breed in North America.
1. Advocates and critics
There is much controversy among breeders of pedigree cats as to
what genetic mutations are abnormal and potentially disadvantageous
to the cat. At one extreme, some governments consider the
munchkin breed to be simply "malformed animals" and the
deliberate breeding of them "unacceptable" because of the
"genetic health problems associated with such breeding".
But keepers and breeders of munchkins declare them to be
"a sound breed" that is "ideal" for small homes
and not particularly susceptible to health problems.
2. Recognition
While some cat registries have
recognised the breed, others have not, including the world's
largest cat fancy, the Fédération
Internationale Féline, which refuses to recognise what they
consider a breed based on a "genetic disease", achondroplasia. The Governing Council of the
Cat Fancy likewise refuses to recognise the breed, considering
this breed and others like it to be "unacceptable"
because they are based on an "abnormal structure or
development". The breed is also not recognized by the
Cat Fanciers'
Association.
On the other hand, among the cat fancies that recognise the
breed are The
International Cat Association (though this has been criticised
by some senior members of the Association), the Southern
Africa Cat Council, and the Waratah National Cat Alliance in
Australia.
3. Biology
Although the genetic abnormality causing the short-legged trait
in munchkin cats is often called achondroplasia, it has not yet
been demonstrated that the trait is due to a gene at the same
locus as causing
achondroplasia in humans.
Furthermore, while achondroplasia is typically associated with an
enlarged head as well as short legs, a combination of features not
seen in munchkin cats, the condition has sometimes been referred to
as hypochondroplasia instead.
As well as shorter limbs, munchkin cats are more prone to
lordosis and pectus excavatum than other cats.
Small litter sizes when two
munchkin cats are crossed indicate that embryos that are homozygous for the munchkin gene are non-viable.
Copyright (c) 2008 Kitt Killion Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.2 or any later version published by the Free Software Foundation; with no Invariant Sections, no Front-Cover Texts, and no Back-Cover Texts. A copy of the license is included in the section entitled "GNU Free Documentation License".
Taken or modified, in whole or part, from Wikipedia.org
