SIBERIAN CATS

of LOS GATOS, CALIFORNIA

Siberian Cats and Hypo Allergenicity

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Are Siberian cats really hypoallergenic or nonallergenic...

Allergies are caused by the immune system of your body vigilantly reacting to proteins it detects.  Most often we are talking about making your body making a special antibody, IgE instead of the normal antibodies IgM and IgG which help fight infections.  IgE is associated with unpleasant symptoms:  sneezing, itching, rashes and wheezing. 

Of all the proteins associated with cats, one of them is far more antigenic, that is more likely to stimulate antibody formation than any other. That protein has the name Fel d1. Originally it was thought that this protein was found not in the fur but in the saliva and gets on the fur when the cat grooms itself. Current research teaches that this protein is found in the sebum, the oily sweat glands of the skin, primarily. This has interesting applications, as male cats will make less sebum and less Fel-d1 after being neutered (1). There are also drugs that effect sebum production, but these have not been explored with relation to decreasing cat allergies.

When an early importer of Siberians to the United States had friends who were allergic around her cats, they began to notice that they were not affected by her Siberian cats like they were by other cats.  This became more noticed and eventually discussed, including with allergists.  By 1999 a private test was done by Indoor Biotechnologies that measured Fel d1 on fur sample of a mixed breed cat and Siberian neutered male and female.  The mixed-breed cat carried ~63,000 microgram of Fel d1 per gram.  The neutered male Siberian carried ~2000 micrograms, and the female Siberian cat carried ~200 micrograms per gram.  This is the only documented test, and included only those two Siberian cats. However, every breeder cat at the SiberianGatos Cattery has tested lower than these numbers.

Now those numbers could easily still be high e