--- license: permission_granted topic_id: companion_species_health_deaf_white_cat_cat category: companion-species-health title: "Cat (Felis catus) — Deaf white cat (hereditary; OMIA-verified species predisposition)" lang: en source: "OMIA (Online Mendelian Inheritance in Animals, University of Sydney) species-specific hereditary-disorder record, saved verbatim to source_file; C1 substring-verified. Pulled 2026-08-24 from local OMIA database dump." source_file: pdf-raw/species-health/cat_deaf_white_cat_2853.txt date_parsed: 2026-08-24 tokens_estimated: 308 verification: method: substring_match claims: 3 passed: 3 date: 2026-08-24 recovered: false path: companion-species-health/companion_species_health_deaf_white_cat_cat/01_companion_species_health_deaf_white_cat_cat.md source_document: "OMIA — Online Mendelian Inheritance in Animals (University of Sydney)" citation: authority: "OMIA — Online Mendelian Inheritance in Animals (University of Sydney)" title: "Cat (Felis catus) — Deaf white cat (hereditary; OMIA-verified species predisposition)" url: "https://omia.org/OMIA000209/9685/" retrieved: "2026-08-24" ref: "OMIA species-specific hereditary-disorder records (omia.org), derived from local OMIA database dump; dataset: https://doi.org/10.25910/2AMR-PV70" doc_type: "academic animal-genetics database (species-specific disorder entries)" needs_review: false
verification_derived: method: derived_from_dataset source: "OMIA database dump (omia.xml, local); fields Gene/Variant/Article/OMIM" note: "Structured fields (gene, variant rsID/protein change, PubMed/DOI references, OMIM cross-link) extracted from OMIA dump and presented with first-hand values; not verbatim prose."---
Cat (Felis catus) — Deaf white cat (hereditary; OMIA-verified species predisposition)
Source: first-hand OMIA (University of Sydney) species-specific hereditary-disorder record, saved verbatim to source_file; every claim below is a C1 byte-substring of it.
Claims
Species: Cat (Felis catus)Disorder: Deaf white catClin feat: As noted by Darwin in the first (1859) edition of Origin of Species, "What can be more singular than the relation between blue eyes and deafness in cats"? (page 144). In the second volume of his 1868 book entitled The Variation of Plants and Animals Under Domestication, he also mentioned the association with white coat colour: "white cats with blue eyes are almost always deaf" (page 354). This association has been much studied since then, but it is still poorly understood. Available data (summarised by Strain, 2007) suggests that the incidence of deafness amongst white cats is around 50%, comprising 40% bilateral and 10% unilateral. For cats with two, one or no blue eyes, the incidence of deafness (both bilateral and unilateral) is around 70%, 40% and 20%, respectively. And in one of the best-documented studies, Bergsma and Brown (1971) reported that around 40% of white cats have blue eyes. A segregation analysis of deafness and blue eyes by Geigy et al. (2007) suggested a gene of major effect affecting both traits, but this conclusion may be compromised by inbreeding in the population studied.
Associated gene(s)
Derived from OMIA database dump (omia.xml, local); structured field, not verbatim prose. First-hand values below are verbatim substrings of the topic's pdf-raw/omia/<phene_id>.txt source file.
- Gene: SCFR (Entrez Gene ID 3489856) — OMIA Phene_Gene / GeneSynonym
- OMIA molecular-genetics note: David et al. (2014) reported the causal mutation of dominant white to be an insertion of a long terminal repeat (LTR) of a feline endogenous retrovirus (FERV1) of the KIT gene (omia.variant:994). David et al. (2014) identified in the same study that a full-length (7125 bp) FERV1 element insertion is associated with white spotting - see '<a href="../../../../../../OMIA001737/9685/">OMIA:001737-9685…
Evidence (references)
Derived from OMIA database dump (omia.xml, local); structured field, not verbatim prose. First-hand values below are verbatim substrings of the topic's pdf-raw/omia/<phene_id>.txt source file.
- 1973. Transneuronal cell atrophy in the congenitally deaf white cat. Journal of Comparative Neurology — PubMed:PMID4754840 | DOI:10.1002/cne.901510406 — OMIA Phene_Article / Article
- 1971. White fur, blue eyes and deafness in the domestic cat. Journal of Heredity — PubMed:PMID5137350 — OMIA Phene_Article / Article
- 1996. Morphological changes in the cochlear nucleus of congenitally deaf white cats. Brain Research — PubMed:PMID8930338 — OMIA Phene_Article / Article
- 1997. Ultrastructural analysis of primary endings in deaf white cats - morphologic alterations in endbulbs of held. Journal of Comparative Neurology — PubMed:PMID9268125 — OMIA Phene_Article / Article
- 1997. Response of the primary auditory cortex to electrical stimulation of the auditory nerve in the congenitally deaf white cat. Hearing Research — PubMed:PMID9367234 — OMIA Phene_Article / Article
- 1998. A model for prelingual deafness, the congenitally deaf white cat - population statistics and degenerative changes. Hearing Research — PubMed:PMID9472739 — OMIA Phene_Article / Article
- 1998. Single unit recordings in the auditory nerve of congenitally deaf white cats - morphological correlates in the cochlea and cochlear nucleus. Journal of Comparative Neurology — PubMed:PMID9699914 — OMIA Phene_Article / Article
- 2002. The effects of congenital deafness on auditory nerve synapses: Type I and type II multipolar cells in the anteroventral cochlear nucleus of cats. J Assoc Res Otolaryngol — PubMed:PMID12486596 | DOI:10.1007/s101620020043 — OMIA Phene_Article / Article
- 1966. The independent assortment of dominant white and polydactyly in the cat. J Hered — PubMed:PMID5917255 — OMIA Phene_Article / Article
- 1971. Animal models of pigment and hearing abnormalities in man. Birth Defects Orig Artic Ser — PubMed:PMID5173333 — OMIA Phene_Article / Article
- 2004. An animal model for cochlear implants. Arch Otolaryngol Head Neck Surg — PubMed:PMID15148168 | DOI:10.1001/archotol.130.5.499 — OMIA Phene_Article / Article
- 2003. Separate forms of pathology in the cochlea of congenitally deaf white cats. Hear Res — PubMed:PMID12855365 — OMIA Phene_Article / Article
- (29 additional references in OMIA)
Comparative medicine (human OMIM)
Derived from OMIA database dump (omia.xml, local); structured field, not verbatim prose. First-hand values below are verbatim substrings of the topic's pdf-raw/omia/<phene_id>.txt source file.
- OMIM:172800 (type: trait) — OMIA Group_OMIM (via OMIA_ID)
- OMIM:164920 (type: gene) — OMIA Group_OMIM (via OMIA_ID)