Abyssinian cat

Abyssinian

A male ruddy Abyssinian
Origin Indian Ocean coast of Egypt[1]
Breed standards
CFA standard
FIFe standard
TICA standard
ACF standard
CCA-AFC standard
Domestic cat (Felis catus)

The Abyssinian /æbᵻˈsɪniən/ is a breed of domestic short-haired cat with a distinctive "ticked" tabby coat, in which individual hairs are banded with different colors.

It is named after Abyssinia (now called Ethiopia), the empire from which it was first thought to have originated; more recent research now places its origins somewhere nearer the Egyptian coast. It has become one of the most popular breeds of short-haired cat in the United States.[2]

History

Illustration of the so-called first abyssinian cat, Zula, from the book by Dr. W. Gordon Stables: Cats, Their Points and Characteristics and Curiosities of Cat Life, 1874
Zula, the so-called "first Abyssinian"

The Abyssinian cat as it is known today was bred in Great Britain. The name 'Abyssinian' refers to Ethiopia, in reference to widely-spread stories of British soldiers deployed to North Africa in the nineteenth century returning home with kittens purchased from local traders.

Description

Appearance

The Abyssinian is a slender, fine-boned, medium-sized cat. The head is moderately wedge shaped, with a slight break at the muzzle, and nose and chin ideally forming a straight vertical line when viewed in profile. They have alert, relatively large pointed ears. The notably expressive eyes are almond shaped and are gold, green, hazel or copper depending on coat color. The legs should be long in proportion to a graceful body, with small oval paws; the tail is likewise long and tapering.

Coat and colors

Close-up view of the fur of an Abyssinian cat, showing the "ticked" effect
The Abyssinian's fur exhibits a unique "ticked" effect

Abyssinian kittens are born with dark coats that gradually lighten as they mature, usually over several months. The adult coat should not be excessively short and is ideally fine, dense and close-lying, silky to the touch. The ticked or agouti effect that is the trademark of the breed—genetically a variant of the tabby pattern—should be uniform over the body, although the ridge of the spine and tail, back of the hind legs and the pads of the paws are always noticeably darker. Each hair has a light base with three or four bands of additional color growing darker towards the tip. The base colour should be as clear as possible; any extensive intermingling with grey is considered a serious fault. A tendency to white on the chin is common but likewise must be minimal. The typical tabby M-shaped marking is often found on the forehead.

Photograph of a champion adult male Abyssinian cat, showing the classic ruddy coat pattern
A champion adult male showing the classic ruddy, or "usual", coat pattern
Photograph of two Abyssinian cats. One cat has chocolate brown ticking, while the other has the more usual sorrel (cinnamon or red) ticking
A six-month-old chocolate Abyssinian (left) with his sorrel father

The breed's original color standard is a warm deep reddish-brown base with black ticking, known as "usual" in the United Kingdom and as "ruddy" elsewhere. Sorrel (also called cinnamon or red), a lighter coppery base with chocolate brown ticking, is a unique mutation of this original pattern. Other variants have been introduced by outcrossings to the Burmese and other shorthaired breeds, notably blue (on a warm beige base) and fawn (on a softer cream base). The less common chocolate and lilac are not recognized in the Cat Fancier's Association (CFA) breed standard[3] but have been granted full champion status in The International Cat Association (TICA)[4] and in the UK. The UK also recognizes the Silver Abyssinian, in which the base coat is a pure silvery white with black (called "usual silver"), blue, cream or sorrel ticking. Various other colour combinations are in development, including the "torbie", in which a patched tortoiseshell pattern in any of these colors is visible under the tabby banding.

The breed owes their distinctive coat to a dominant mutant gene known as Ta. The first cat to have its entire genome published was an Abyssinian named Cinnamon.[5]

Temperament

Abyssinians are a popular breed thanks in large part to their unusual intelligence and generally extroverted, playful, willful personalities. They are said to become depressed without constant activity and attention from their owners.[6] Veterinarian Joan O. Joshua has written that the "dog-like attachment to the owners" of Abyssinian and Burmese cats causes "greater dependence on human contacts". This stands in contrast to the mere "tolerant acceptance of human company" based around "comforts" that multiple other breeds display.[7]

Photograph of three Abyssinian kittens, showing three different coat colors: ruddy, fawn and blue
Abyssinian kittens. Clockwise from left: ruddy, fawn and blue

With their interest in playing with their owners combined with their curious intelligence, Abyssinians are nicknamed the "Clowns of the Cat Kingdom."[8] However, in marked contrast to this outgoing nature (and unlike most other Oriental shorthair breeds) they tend to be very quiet cats, with soft voices, and often wary of strangers. Abyssinians can be difficult to show, thus, as some individuals are excessively timid or particularly shy among unknown people.[9]

Health

The breed can be prone to gingivitis, which can lead to more serious periodontitis.[10] Familial renal amyloidosis or AA amyloidosis, a kidney disorder due to a mutation in the AA amyloid protein gene, has been seen in Abyssinians.[11] The Abyssinian has had severe problems with blindness caused by a hereditary retinal degeneration due to mutations in the rdAc gene. However, the prevalence has been reduced from 45% to less than 4% in 2008 in the country of Sweden.[12] With the widespread availability of rdAc mutation detection tests and services, such as those provided by the UC Davis Veterinary Genetics Laboratory, it is possible to reduce the disease frequency in all populations of Abyssinian.[13][14]

Genetic diversity

The 2008 study The Ascent of Cat Breeds: Genetic Evaluations of Breeds and Worldwide Random-bred Populations by Lipinski et al. conducted at UC Davis by the team led by leading feline geneticist Dr Leslie Lyons found that the Abyssinian has a low level of genetic diversity, a heterozygosity value of 0.45 within a range of 0.34-0.69 for all breeds studied, and has genetic markers common to both Southeast Asian and Western breeds indicating that cats from both Asia and Europe were used to create the breed.[15]

In popular culture

References

  1. ↑ "Abyssinian Profile", Catz Inc., accessed 4 Oct 2009
  2. ↑ Cat Fanciers' Association. "Breed Profile: Abyssinian". 2011.
  3. ↑ http://www.cfainc.org/Portals/0/documents/breeds/standards/abyssinian.pdf
  4. ↑ "Welcome to TICA - The International Cat Association, TICA cats, TICA pedigreed cats, pedigreed cats, pedigreed cats registry, household pet cat registry, domestic cat registry, Savannah cat, Bengal cat, Persian cat, Maine Coon cat" (PDF).
  5. ↑ Highfield, Roger (2007-10-31). "Cinnamon the cat could offer hope to the blind". The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 2007-11-01.
  6. ↑ Pollard, Michael. The Encyclopedia of the Cat. United Kingdom: Parragon Publishing, 1999.
  7. ↑ Joshua, Joan O. (2013). The Clinical Aspects of Some Diseases of Cats. Elsevier. p. 1. ISBN 9781483226002.
  8. ↑ "Abyssinian". VCA Animal Hospitals. Retrieved September 9, 2016.
  9. ↑ "TICA page of Abyssinian Breed". TICA. Retrieved 2012-05-21.
  10. ↑ "Periodontitis - Cat". Vetbook.org. 2012-10-19. Retrieved 2013-12-27.
  11. ↑ Niewold, T. A.; Van Der Linde-Sipman, J. S.; Murphy, C.; Tooten, P. C.; Gruys, E. (1999). "Familial amyloidosis in cats: Siamese and Abyssinian AA proteins differ in primary sequence and pattern of deposition". Amyloid. 6 (3): 205–209. doi:10.3109/13506129909007328. PMID 10524286.
  12. ↑ "Theodosius Dobzhansky Center for Genome Bioinformatics" (PDF).
  13. ↑ "Cat Progressive Retinal Atrophy". Vgl.ucdavis.edu. Retrieved 2013-12-27.
  14. ↑ Lyons, L. A. (2012). "Genetic testing in domestic cats". Molecular and Cellular Probes. 26 (6): 224–230. doi:10.1016/j.mcp.2012.04.004. PMC 3541004Freely accessible. PMID 22546621.
  15. ↑ Lipinski, M. J.; Froenicke, L.; Baysac, K. C.; Billings, N. C.; Leutenegger, C. M.; Levy, A. M.; Longeri, M.; Niini, T.; Ozpinar, H.; Slater, M. R.; Pedersen, N. C.; Lyons, L. A. (2008). "The ascent of cat breeds: Genetic evaluations of breeds and worldwide random-bred populations". Genomics. 91 (1): 12–21. doi:10.1016/j.ygeno.2007.10.009. PMC 2267438Freely accessible. PMID 18060738.

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