Muffin, can you help me find my keys?
Feline HIV, or “Cat AIDS,” isn’t anything new to me. I had a friend infected with it 20 years ago. The poor guy (Copper was his name) got loose, then in a fight with another cat gave to him through a nasty bite. He was a sweet animal and I think he lived for many years, about the average for a domestic indoor cat.
Whenever our pets (or as I sometimes call them, monsters) go to the vet, they’re always checked for this and they pass because they’re not allowed outside unsupervised.
Now NPR published the Web version of their radio story about the glowing side effect to a treatment; it’s caused by mixing monkey and jellyfish genes. I recall there are species of primates which are immune; there’s also a special colony in Louisiana that proved to be ineffective for testing, their physiology was too different from humans, hence they’re “retired” until they die out. If you read the story, you will see the explanation on why jellyfish genetics were put in the mix.
I still have my doubts on the validity of this. Jellyfish aren’t even mammals and I don’t understand how their DNA wouldn’t be rejected outright in such a Dr. Mephesto-esque design…except the cat only has one ass.
Fear not, I won’t retract this should snopes, Mythbusters or FactCheck prove it false. I think I’ll be tracking this myself to make sure.
At least the glowing element isn’t cruel like the other intentional modifications I’ve seen to other breeds: short front legs, almost no fur and freaky ears.
Individual genes aren’t inherently “mammalian” or inherently “invertebrate.” Scientists have been using this one jellyfish gene for ages as a litmus test; they found a three-or-four codon segment in jellyfish that encodes the glow-in-the-dark protein. It’s pretty simple, really, anywhere, in any animal’s genetic code, where scientists identify that a pigment is being encoded, they insert this code, and viola! Glow in the dark!