Hypoallergenic Cats

The world's first specially-bred hypoallergenic cats have gone on sale for almost $4,000 each. A biotech company was able to naturally selectively breed them by reducing a certain type of protein that triggers allergic reactions.

The company tested huge numbers of cats trying to find the tiny fraction which do not carry the glycoprotein Fel d1 - contained in their saliva, fur and skin - which produces allergies. Those cats were then used to breed the hypoallergenic cats.

According to the company, this is a "natural gene divergence within the cat DNA - one out of 50,000 cats will have this natural divergence ... so candidates of natural divergent cats were found and then bred, so there is really no modification of the gene."