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PK Deficiency - What Is It and How Does it Affect Savannah Cats

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Paige
Staff member
Thank you Paige! I'm not sure why they said that either, they said they do it for other breeds but that Savannahs are not one of them, and not known to be at risk of it, perhaps their information is outdated?

Yes, it could be...I have spoken tot hem and know they do it...but I use UC Davis!
 

Brigitte Cowell

Moderator
Staff member
Thank you Paige! I'm not sure why they said that either, they said they do it for other breeds but that Savannahs are not one of them, and not known to be at risk of it, perhaps their information is outdated?
It could be that they mistook it for the PKD test which is a different heritable disease... Polycystic Kidney Disease, as opposed to Pyruvate Kinase Deficiency (PK Def) which is what we are most concerned about with our breed.
 

AlyssaRae

Savannah Super Cat
I was learning about this disease recently in class and I was curious about something and was hoping maybe some of the breeders could answer it… I was wondering if let's just say for an example that you have a stud that is N/N but have a queen that has tested N/K. Since you wouldn't produce any kittens that are K/K would you still use that pairing to breed?
 

Patti

Admin
Staff member
I think you will find that different breeders have different tolerances. If you bred this pair, statistically 50% of the kittens will be N/K. None of those kittens will ever develop PK Deficiency so inconsequential if sold as pets. However, I would hope that if the breeder ever considered selling any of the kittens as breeders he/she would test them first so that whoever is purchasing will be aware if the kitten they are interested in is N/K or not.
 

AlyssaRae

Savannah Super Cat
Thank you Patti :) That makes complete sense… We started talking about last week in my animal breeding class so I was curious how breeders looked at it.
 

Brigitte Cowell

Moderator
Staff member
I was learning about this disease recently in class and I was curious about something and was hoping maybe some of the breeders could answer it… I was wondering if let's just say for an example that you have a stud that is N/N but have a queen that has tested N/K. Since you wouldn't produce any kittens that are K/K would you still use that pairing to breed?

Sorry for coming to this late, but I think Patti answered this well.

Mostly, one would only keep a N/K cat in one's program if you really liked the cat and didn't want to lose it from your program. Your hope likely would be to get a N/N progeny that might replace it in your program...and definitely you would only want to breed to a N/N cat to ensure no affected offspring were possible. And the ethical thing would be to pet out all offspring that were N/K and not perpetuate the problem...
 

AlyssaRae

Savannah Super Cat
Thank you for explaining more of the ethics part of it Brigitte! Makes sense… :up: My animal breeding class is kicking my butt! :confused: So much to understand with so many species… It makes my head hurt thinking about it lol thanks for explaining it a bit more though!
 
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