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 greats us with such unbridled enthusiasm at the sheer joy of finding out that we’re not dead just because we left him alone for 5 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 crushing to contemplate. However, whilst there are a mountain of research studies investigating canine health, there have only been a comparative molehill investigating feline health. So why are cats the underdog when it comes to veterinary medical research studies? Well, there’s probably few things at play here.

Lack of funding for cat health research

One of major hurdles facing feline health research would be funding. Medical research is expensive, and sadly, veterinary medical research funding is significantly lower and more fragmented compared to human medical research funding. While human medicine receives billions in government and industry investment, veterinary research often struggles with limited funding, relying heavily on charities, pet food companies, and private donations. On top of this, funding for canine health research has historically far outweighed that available for feline 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 did cats become second to dogs as the most popular household pet in the UK (2), yet they remain relatively understudied and underfunded compared to dogs. In fact, according to the Morris Animal Foundation (3), cats are the most under-represented companion animals in veterinary research relative to their population. There is no doubt that this will have a significant impact on the speed of advancements in our understanding of feline health.

The challenge of mapping the cat genome

Another hurdle facing feline health research is genetic mapping, more specifically the availability of high-quality reference genome build (or assembly). This is a computational representation of an organism’s genetic code, created by arranging billions of short, sequenced DNA fragments into continuous sequences that represent the full genome. It serves as a ‘reference map’, with new versions released as technology improves and ‘gaps’ are filled. The first high-quality draft sequence of the domestic dog genome was built/released in 2005 (4) and more updated, detailed genome builds have regularly been coming out ever since. By contrast, although the first draft sequence of domestic cat genome was built/released 2007 (5), a more complete one wasn’t generated until 2014, and it wasn’t until 2017 that the ungapped assembly size was comparable to that of the dog genome assembly (6). But why does all this matter?

Why a high-quality cat DNA map matters

Having a high quality “normal” genome is essential for any genetic-based research. Basically, you can only identify alterations (‘changes’) in a genome of an individual with a particular characteristic (‘phenotype’), if you know the ‘normal’ genome looks like to start with, i.e., if you have a ‘reference’. For example, by taking the diverse phenotypes seen amongst the different breeds of cats, and coupling it to any variations (differences) in their genomes, it was possible to identify the genetic alteration for several phenotypes, including one for dwarfism – the defining feature of Munchkins, characterized by shortened limbs with a normal-sized torso (6). Similarly, when trying to identify which genetic alteration has occurred in a tumour that allowed it to develop and grow, you need to know what the ‘normal’ genome for that individual looks like, i.e., what is present in ‘healthy’ cells. Thus, it wasn’t until a high-quality reference genome 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 mutations in 12 different in types of tumours found in domestic cats wasn’t published until 2026 (7). By contrast, mountains of large-scale genetic studies of cancers in domestic dog tumours 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 genome (‘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, aka. a ‘moggy’; this happens to be the most common ‘breed’ of pet cat. That is why publicly accessible genomes of healthy cats from different breeds are critical to help identify what are known as ‘single nucleotide polymorphisms’ (SNPs) – changes in a single DNA building block (‘nucleotide’) that naturally occur in a population but which have no direct effect on health – as when looking for genetic alterations that may be responsible for a phenotype, SNPs need to be excluded. As of 2025, the Single Nucleotide Polymorphism Database (dbSNP) has grown to include the data from hundreds of thousands of human genomes (8) and efforts such as the ‘Dog10K Consortium’ have sequenced the genomes of over 2,000 healthy canids (ranging from domestic dogs to wolves) (9). However, for cats the options are considerably sparser, with only 418 domestic cat genomes sequenced to-date, co-ordinated by the ‘99 Lives Cat Genome Consortium’ (6). This further adds to the difficulties facing investigations into the genetics underpinning feline health.

The role of the pharmaceutical industry in cat research

Should the pharmaceutical companies and industry share some of the blame for this discrepancy between canine and felines 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 that 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 canine 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 us being spent on them in terms of veterinary products, and thus pharma/industry are less incentivised to pour money into feline 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 arisen due to selective breeding, driven by the desire for specific conformations demanded by 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, what if we think about this from another angle? 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 on such occasions, there is little medical intervention that can be done. 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 feline clinical research as recruitment for 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 feline health research is unquestionable, for the benefit of the cats themselves and also humans. For example, genetic analysis of Maine Coons with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HC)13 and Persians with polycystic kidney disease (PKD)(14), as these breeds are highly susceptible to the respective diseases, led to the identification of the causative gene/mutation. This benefits not only cats but also humans, as both these diseases are found in humans, such that cats represent relevant models in which to study the disease and ultimately develop therapies. Similarly, any advances in the understanding and treatment of HC and PKD in humans can be used to inform veterinary practices. This is ethos of the ‘One Medicine’ concept. Thus, as One Medicine gains more widespread understanding and appreciation, it is hoped more funding, time and research studies will flow into feline health, and cats will no longer be the ‘underdog’. Indeed, perhaps they will become the ‘overcat’- or is that too much to ask?

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/.

2. https://www.pdsa.org.uk/what-we-do/pdsa-animal-wellbeing-report/uk-pet-populations-of-dogs-cats-and-rabbits.

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

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