Taffy and Martin
Greg’s allergies to felines inspired this post. See, I am one of those lucky humans who does not suffer from cat allergies. How purrfectly convenient since I love cats to death. Because I’m allergy-free, I never really understood the allergy and assumed it was a reaction to the cat hair. An impressive 15-30% of the populace suffers from pet allergies, with feline sensitivity being 2x more common.
I believed cat hair was triggering allergy attacks, but it’s dander (dead skin), saliva, and urine that do the damage by acting as allergens. The chief culprit is gycoprotein Fel d 1 which is found in saliva and skin, secreted by the sebaceous glands
Allergy sufferers with asthma are also prone to attacks after cat exposure. Non-neutered male cats shed the most dander because hormones are involved in the regulation of dander. This is kind of an appetite killer: the dander gets everywhere and will enter your home even though you have no Morris or Tidy Cat yourself. It floats around in the air and is all up in public places, and we breathe it into our lungs.
Ooh, looks like there’s a current clinical trial for a cat allergy vaccine!
Cat allergy is an increasingly prevalent condition, affecting 10-15% of patients with allergic rhinoconjunctivitis and/or asthma. Cat-PAD is a novel, synthetic, allergen-derived peptide desensitising vaccine, currently being developed for the treatment of cat allergy. This study will investigate the efficacy of 4 treatment regimens of Cat-PAD in cat allergic subjects following challenge to cat allergen in an environmental exposure chamber (EEC).
Do you have allergies and have been contemplating adopting a Mr. Bigglesworth? Not really the best idea since as I’ve just pointed out, cat saliva is one crucial source of the allergen, and all cats have saliva, so no go. The company Allerca claims to have produce the world’s first hypoallergenic cat, verified by science. Hmm. Hey, who wants to try these felines out? They’ll set ya back $7,950 (for the standard cat) to $37,000 (for the leopard-like version), and you won’t receive your bundle of fur for a year.
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