The Burmese cat as a genetic model of type 2 diabetes in humans

The recent extension of genetic tools to the domestic cat, together with the serendipitous consequences of selective breeding, have been essential to the study of the genetic diseases that affect them. Cats are increasingly presented for veterinary surveillance and share many of human's heritable diseases, allowing them to serve as natural models of these conditions. Feline diabetes mellitus is a common condition in domestic cats that bears close pathological and clinical resemblance to type 2 diabetes in humans, including pancreatic β-cell dysfunction and peripheral insulin resistance. In Australia, New Zealand and Europe, diabetes mellitus is almost four times more common in cats of the Burmese breed than in other breeds. This geographically based breed predisposition parallels familial and population clustering of type 2 diabetes in humans. As a genetically isolated population, the Australian Burmese breed provides a spontaneous, naturally occurring genetic model of type 2 diabetes. Genetically isolated populations typically exhibit extended linkage disequilibrium and increased opportunity for deleterious variants to reach high frequencies over many generations due to genetic drift. Studying complex diseases in such populations allows for tighter control of confounding factors including environmental heterogeneity, allelic frequencies and population stratification. The homogeneous genetic background of Australian Burmese cats may provide a unique opportunity to either refine genetic signals previously associated with type 2 diabetes or identify new risk factors for this disease.