The Next Weird Way We’re Changing Cats
The first thing to know is that truly allergen-free cats are a myth. Sorry.
That’s because all cats—longhair, shorthair, no hair—shed a pernicious little protein called Fel d 1, found in the saliva and oil glands, which causes most cat allergies. Some cats shed 80 times more of it than others of the same breed; no one knows why. Some shed more one month and less the next. Certain breeds may indeed make less Fel d 1 on average, but evidence is sparse. Back in the 2000s, a much-hyped start-up claiming to have bred hypoallergenic cats collapsed in disgrace, leaving some customers with pets that still made them wheeze and others who had shelled out thousands of dollars up front with no cat at all. That’s to say, demand for allergen-free cats is intense. It’s just that no one has managed to breed one.
Where old-fashioned breeding has failed, though, scientists are now turning to biotechnology. In recent years, a suite of sci-fi-esque strategies have been aimed at Fel d 1: a kibble coated in an egg-yolk derivative that neutralizes the allergen, a vaccine that uses
