By Dr Louise van der Weyden
Senior Staff Scientist at the Wellcome Sanger Institute | Humanimal Trust Taskforce Member
I must start with a confession, I’m a dog person. It tugs at the ol’ heart strings every time our Cockapoo greets us with such enthusiasm at the sheer joy of finding out that we’re not dead just because we left him alone for five minutes. That said, whilst Wynston is not a fan of cats, I definitely am. I will happily stop to pat a cat I see in the streets and jump at the chance to look after our neighbour’s cats when they go away. In what can be a crazy world at times, pets can give us so much happiness, and companion animals, specifically dogs and cats, are frequently viewed as members of the family. If they become ill, we take them to the vets and will do whatever is recommended (often regardless of the cost) to get them well again, as the fear of losing them is too hard to think about. However, whilst there is a lot of research investigating dog health, there is not very much at all investigating cat health. So why are cats the underdog when it comes to animal health research studies? Well, there are probably a few things at play here.
Lack of funding for cat health research
One of the major hurdles facing cat health research is funding. Medical research is expensive, and sadly, animal health research funding is significantly lower and more split up compared with human medical research funding. While human medical research receives billions of pounds in government and industry investment, animal health research often struggles and relies heavily on charities, pet food companies, and private donations. On top of this, funding for dog health research has historically been far greater than that available for cat health research (1). For example, some of the biggest animal charities in the UK, such as Dogs Trust and the Kennel Club Charitable Trust, only fund canine research. Only since 2025 have cats become second to dogs as the most popular household pet in the UK (2), yet they remain relatively understudied and underfunded compared with dogs. In fact, according to the Morris Animal Foundation3, cats are the most under-represented companion animals in animal health research relative to their population. It is very likely that this is holding back progress in understanding cat health.
The challenge of mapping the cat genome
Another challenge in improving cat health research is understanding cats’ genetics. Scientists rely on a complete “genetic map” of a cat to do this. This map is made by carefully putting together many tiny pieces of DNA to show how a cat’s genes fit together. DNA is the set of instructions that tells a body how to grow and work. When this map is incomplete or outdated, it makes research slower and less accurate. As technology improves, scientists update the map to fill in missing pieces and make it more reliable.
Scientists created a high-quality DNA map for dogs back in 2005 and have been improving it ever since.(4) Cats, however, have lagged behind. Although the first cat DNA map was released in 2007,(5) it took until 2014 to make a more complete version, and not until 2017 did it reach a similar level of detail to the dog map.(6)
Why a high-quality cat DNA map matters
But why does all this matter?
Having a high quality “normal” DNA map is essential for any genetic-based research. Basically, you can only identify changes in a DNA map if you know what the ‘normal’ DNA map looks like to start with. For example, by looking at different characteristics across various breeds of cats, and looking at differences in their DNA maps, scientists have been able to find the genes responsible for those features, including one for dwarfism – the defining feature of Munchkins cats, which have short legs but a normal-sized body (6). Similarly, when trying to identify which changes have occurred in a cancer growth, you need to know what the ‘normal’ DNA map for that individual looks like, i.e., what is present in ‘healthy’ cells. Thus, it wasn’t until a high-quality ’normal’ DNA map was available for the cat that genetic studies of cancer in cats could get started in earnest. Indeed, the first large-scale study to look at cancer gene changes in 12 different in types of domestic cat cancers wasn’t published until 2026 (7). By contrast, mountains of large-scale genetic studies of domestic dog cancers have been published since 2005.
Limited cat genomic databases compared with dogs
Of course, no two individuals are genetically the same (except identical twins). So when using the 2017 reference DNA map (‘FelCat9’) generated from an Abyssinian cat named Cinnamon6, there will be differences between that and the genome from a cat of another breed, or even a ‘domestic shorthair’ cat, which is the technical term for any short-haired cat that doesn’t belong to a specific breed, also known as a ‘moggy’; this happens to be the most common ‘breed’ of pet cat. That is why publicly accessible DNA maps of healthy cats from different breeds are critical to help identify what are known as ‘single nucleotide polymorphisms’ (SNPs) – these are changes in a single ‘piece’ of DNA that occur naturally but have no direct effect on health. SNPs need to be excluded when scientists are only looking for changes that may affect health. As of 2025, the Single Nucleotide Polymorphism Database (dbSNP) has grown to include the data from hundreds of thousands of human DNA maps (8) and efforts such as the ‘Dog10K Consortium’ have sequenced the maps of over 2,000 healthy dogs and even wolves (9). However, for cats this is far less, with only 418 domestic cat DNA maps sequenced to-date, co-ordinated by the ‘99 Lives Cat Genome Consortium’ (6). This makes it harder to study the genetics of cat health.
The role of the pharmaceutical industry in cat research
Should the pharmaceutical companies and industry share some of the blame for this difference between cats and dogs in terms of health research? Absolutely yes. Pharmaceutical companies tend to sponsor more clinical trials for dogs than cats as working with cats is more challenging. For example, keeping cats in large colonies takes more time and effort than it does for dogs (10). Similarly, industry is heavily driven by the need for return on investment, and the pet market (e.g., higher rates of regular booster vaccinations) often provides more commercial opportunities for dog health products.
Do cat owners visit the vet less often?
Yet perhaps this is a symptom of us as cat owners? A study of US pet ownership found that dog owners took their dogs to the vets more than twice as often as cat owners, and owners of both dogs and cats took their cats to the vets significantly less often than their dogs (11). If we don’t take our pet cats to the vet as often, less money is being spent on them in terms of veterinary products, and thus pharma/industry are less incentivised to pour money into cat health research or health product development. Or are we not taking our cats to the vets as often as our dogs because they are generally healthier? It has been suggested that many health problems in dogs have come about due to selective breeding, driven by the need for certain breed standards, whereas selective breeding is not so enforced in cats, and thus “may be domestic cats are doing OK as a species because we haven’t messed about with them quite so much” (10). It is worth noting that an estimated 1 in 4 dogs will develop cancer in their lifetime, whereas the estimate for cats is 1 in 5 (12).
Why cats are more difficult to study
Alternatively, could it be argued that cats are not really helping themselves in all this? Cats instinctively hide illness to avoid predators, making them masters at masking symptoms until they are very sick. Thus, by the time they are taken to the vet often there is little the vet can do. Similarly, visiting a vet tends to be more stressful for cats than dogs, thus owners want to avoid putting their pet through the experience (10). This in turn makes it more difficult for cat research as running studies is harder, with owners not wanting to add any additional stress on their cats (10).
The future of cat health research and One Medicine
That more time and money needs to be spent on cat health research is unquestionable, for the benefit of the cats themselves and also humans. For example, genetic analysis of Maine Coons with heart issues (13) and Persians with kidney problems (14), has led to finding the genetic change responsible. This benefits not only cats but also humans who have those same heart and kidney problems. Similarly, any advances in the understanding and treatment of those conditions in humans can be used to help veterinary care. This is the ethos of the ‘One Medicine’ concept. Thus, as One Medicine gains more widespread understanding and appreciation, it is hoped more funding, time and research will flow into cat health, and cats will no longer be the ‘underdog’. Indeed, perhaps they will become the ‘overcat’ – or is that too much to ask?
If you enjoyed this blog, please consider making a donation. As a charity, we rely on your support to enable us to continue our work, connecting human and animal medical professionals to advance the health of people and animals alike. Donate here.
Author bio:
Dr. Louise van der Weyden completed a BSc (Biomedical Science) at the University of Sydney, Australia with 1st Class Honours and the University Medal in 1997. She then completed a PhD in cancer biology at the University of Sydney in 2001, before starting as a post-doctoral fellow in Professor Allan Bradley’s Lab at the Wellcome Sanger Institute, Cambridge, UK. During her time at the Sanger Institute, Dr. van der Weyden was awarded a National Health and Medical Research Council CJ Martin & RG Menzies Fellowship (Australia) in 2002, an Intermediate Fellowship from the Kay Kendall Leukaemia Foundation (UK) in 2007 and became a William Guy Forbeck Research Foundation Scholar (USA) in 2014. In 2017, she was awarded the University of Technology Alumni Award for Excellence (Faculty of Science).
Dr. van der Weyden is currently a Senior Staff Scientist at the Wellcome Sanger Institute and has published over 130 peer-reviewed papers. Her research passion has always been investigations into the genetics of cancer, using both sequencing technologies and mouse models to identify and characterise novel driver genes of cancer and metastasis. Since 2019, Dr. van der Weyden has focussed on comparative oncogenomics, studying spontaneously developed cancer in animals, both as models of human cancer and for the benefit of the animals themselves. She has always loved animals and is a passionate believer in One Medicine.
References:
1. https://www.catwatchnewsletter.com/features/cat-research-woes/.
3. https://www.morrisanimalfoundation.org/.
4. Lindblad-Toh K, Wade CM, Mikkelsen TS, et al. Genome sequence, comparative analysis and haplotype structure of the domestic dog. Nature. Dec 8 2005;438(7069):803-19. doi:10.1038/nature04338
5. Pontius JU, Mullikin JC, Smith DR, et al. Initial sequence and comparative analysis of the cat genome. Genome Res. Nov 2007;17(11):1675-89. doi:10.1101/gr.6380007
6. Buckley RM, Davis BW, Brashear WA, et al. A new domestic cat genome assembly based on long sequence reads empowers feline genomic medicine and identifies a novel gene for dwarfism. PLoS Genet. Oct 2020;16(10):e1008926. doi:10.1371/journal.pgen.1008926
7. Francis BA, Ludwig L, He C, et al. The oncogenome of the domestic cat. Science. Feb 19 2026;391(6787):793-799. doi:10.1126/science.ady6651
8. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/snp/docs/about/.
9. Meadows JRS, Kidd JM, Wang G-D, et al. Genome sequencing of 2000 canids by the Dog10K consortium advances the understanding of demography, genome function and architecture. Genome Biology. 2023/08/15 2023;24(1):187. doi:10.1186/s13059-023-03023-7
10. ‘It’s only felophiles who think about doing feline research’. Vet Rec. Nov 2022;191 Suppl 1:8-9. doi:10.1002/vetr.2393
11. Lue TW, Pantenburg DP, Crawford PM. Impact of the owner-pet and client-veterinarian bond on the care that pets receive. J Am Vet Med Assoc. Feb 15 2008;232(4):531-40. doi:10.2460/javma.232.4.531
12. https://holisticpetcarenj.com/blog/what-is-your-pets-cancer-risk/.
13. Meurs KM, Sanchez X, David RM, et al. A cardiac myosin binding protein C mutation in the Maine Coon cat with familial hypertrophic cardiomyopathy. Hum Mol Genet. Dec 1 2005;14(23):3587-93. doi:10.1093/hmg/ddi386
14. Lyons LA, Biller DS, Erdman CA, et al. Feline polycystic kidney disease mutation identified in PKD1. J Am Soc Nephrol. Oct 2004;15(10):2548-55. doi:10.1097/01.Asn.0000141776.38527.Bb