Do White Cats With Blue Eyes Deaf

In general these type of genetic deformities are observed more in dominant white cats.

Do white cats with blue eyes deaf. A white cat with blue eyes is more likely to be deaf. Firstly the easy answer to this question is no. The deafness is linked to the so-called W gene.

The uphill road to solving polygenic disorders The pure white cat with luminous blue eyes is an attrac-tive image familiar to many. Pure white cats with blue eyes are well-known to be commonly affected by a congenital hereditary deafness that may affect one or both ears. Strain Louisiana State University.

The reason as you may have guessed is heredity. Thus deafness is strongly linked to the white coat colour and blue eye colour but not all white cats or white cats with blue eyes are necessarily deaf. First of all it can be said that not all white cats are deaf but they are more likely to be deaf since they carry the so-called gene W White of white in English especially those that have one eye of each color or blue eyes.

For those cats with other colored eyes only 10-20 are deaf. Overall statistics indicate that. Some of these cats are deaf in only one ear.

Eye color in white cats also relates to the potential for deafness. An estimated 40 percent of white cats with blue eyes are deaf which is high. The rest of the white cats typically have orange or green eyes and they are usually neither deaf.

If youre wondering what exactly is the reason behind this youre not alone. The variable penetrance of deafness and eye colour may be caused by interplay with other genes andor environmental factors. Dominant epistatic white is a masking gene that overrides all other coat colours and is symbolised with the letters W D.