The Donskoy cat, also known as Don Sphynx or Russian Hairless, is a hairless

cat breed The following list of cat breeds includes only domestic cat breeds and domestic and wild hybrids. The list includes established breeds recognized by various cat registries, new and experimental breeds, landraces being established as standardized ...

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia, Northern Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the ...

n origin. It is not related to the better-known

Sphynx cat The Sphynx cat (pronounced , ) also known as the Canadian Sphynx, is a breed of cat known for its lack of fur. Hairlessness in cats is a naturally occurring genetic mutation, and the Sphynx was developed through selective breeding of these anim ...

, also known as the Canadian Hairless, whose characteristic hairlessness is caused by a

recessive In genetics, dominance is the phenomenon of one variant (allele) of a gene on a chromosome masking or overriding the effect of a different variant of the same gene on the other copy of the chromosome. The first variant is termed dominant and t ...

mutation in the keratin 71

gene In biology, the word gene (from , ; "...Wilhelm Johannsen coined the word gene to describe the Mendelian units of heredity..." meaning ''generation'' or ''birth'' or ''gender'') can have several different meanings. The Mendelian gene is a ba ...

. The Donskoy's hairlessness, on the other hand, is caused by a dominant mutation.

History

This breed started in 1987 with the discovery of a hairless cat in the Russian city of

Rostov-on-Don Rostov-on-Don ( rus, Ростов-на-Дону, r=Rostov-na-Donu, p=rɐˈstof nə dɐˈnu) is a port city and the administrative centre of Rostov Oblast and the Southern Federal District of Russia. It lies in the southeastern part of the East Eu ...

by cat breeder Elena Kovaleva. She had rescued a blue tortoiseshell kitten, which she named Varvara. At around four months of age, the cat began to lose fur. Varvara mated with a local tomcat and produced a litter of kittens; these kittens are the founding stock of the Donskoy breed and were later outcrossed with

European Shorthair The European Shorthair, called the European in FIFe and WCF, is a cat breed originating in Sweden. The term has also been used as an elaborate way of referring to common domestic cats of Europe, causing some confusion as the pedigree cats of th ...

cats. The Donskoy was first officially recognized by the

World Cat Federation The World Cat Federation (WCF) is an international association of cat clubs. It was founded in 1988 in the city of Rio de Janeiro, and continues to have a strong presence in Latin America, Western Europe, and in countries of the former USSR. It ...

(WCF) in 1997 and by

The International Cat Association The International Cat Association (TICA) is considered the world's largest genetic cat registry. Originally a North American organization, it now has a worldwide presence. The organization has a genetic registry for pedigreed and household pet cat ...

(TICA) in 2005. The

standard of points In animal husbandry or animal fancy, a breed standard is a description of the characteristics of a hypothetical or ideal example of a breed. The description may include phenotype, physical or morphology (biology), morphological detail, genotype, g ...

describes the cat as being medium-sized and muscular, with large ears, almond shaped eyes and distinctive long, webbed toes. They require frequent grooming, in spite of their lack of coat. Over-bathing can cause the skin to become very oily. The

Peterbald The Peterbald is a cat breed of Russian origin. It was created in St Petersburg in 1994 from an experimental breeding by Olga S. Mironova. They resemble Oriental Shorthairs with a hair-losing gene. The breed was accepted for Championship ...

breed was originally created by crossing Donskoy with

Oriental Shorthair The Oriental Shorthair is a breed of domestic cat that is developed from and closely related to the Siamese cat. It maintains the modern Siamese head and body type but appears in a wide range of coat colors and patterns. Like the Siamese, Ori ...

cats to create a hairless cat of Oriental-type. Matings between the Donskoy and the Peterbald are no longer permitted since 2000, and

outcrossing Out-crossing or out-breeding is the technique of crossing between different breeds. This is the practice of introducing distantly related genetic material into a breeding line, thereby increasing genetic diversity. Outcrossing can be a useful ...

is not permitted, except with the

domestic shorthair A domestic short-haired cat is a cat possessing a coat of short fur, not belonging to any particular recognised cat breed. In Britain they are sometimes colloquially called moggies. Domestic short-haired cats are distinct from the British Shortha ...

, due to the effect of the Donskoy's dominant hairless mutation.

Health

Not all cat registries recognize the Donskoy, and there are some concerns about the genetic health of the breed. The dominant genetic mutation causing hairlessness in Peterbalds and Donskoys could cause feline

ectodermal dysplasia Ectodermal dysplasia (ED) is a group of genetic syndromes all deriving from abnormalities of the ectodermal structures.James, William; Berger, Timothy; Elston, Dirk (2005). ''Andrews' Diseases of the Skin: Clinical Dermatology''. (10th ed.). S ...

in its

homozygous Zygosity (the noun, zygote, is from the Greek "yoked," from "yoke") () is the degree to which both copies of a chromosome or gene have the same genetic sequence. In other words, it is the degree of similarity of the alleles in an organism. Mo ...

form, causing problems including poor dentition and compromised ability to lactate or sweat. Similar dominant mutations (such as in

FOXI3 Forkead box I3 (FOXI3) is a protein that in humans is encoded by the ''FOXI3'' gene. FOXI3 is a forkhead box transcription factor that is expressed in the development of hair and teeth. One of its mutations is a dominant allele responsible for t ...

) cause the condition in

hairless dogs A hairless dog is a dog with a Genetics, genetic disposition for hairlessness and hair loss. There are two known types of genetic hairlessness, a Dominant gene, dominant and a recessive type. The dominant type is caused by ectodermal dysplasia as ...

, and the symptoms in dominant-type hairless cats and dogs mirror those of human ectodermal dysplasia (which also results in sparse or absent hair).

References

External links

Donskoy cat breed
from the TICA website {{Cat nav Cat breeds Cat breeds originating in Russia Hairless cat breeds Rare cat breeds Animal breeds originating in the Soviet Union