The genome of the cat is highly conserved. In fact, of the nonprimate mammalian species in which gene maps are developing, the cat genome exhibits the most similarities to that of the human (1 ). Biomedical studies in the domestic cat have contributed significantly to our knowledge in the areas of immunology, infectious diseases, genetics, neurophysiology, and cancer (2 ). Many of the heritable disorders of cats are analogous to those of humans, including hemophilia A and B, polycystic kidney disease, and several lysosomal storage diseases such as mucopolysaccharidosis, α-mannosidosis, and spingomyelinosis C. The close phylogenetic relationship, and the fact that many analogous genetic disorders have been identified and characterized, are important factors that demonstrate the advantages of domestic cats as biomedical research models for human disease when compared to other laboratory animals.
