Inbreeding rate and genetic structure of cat populations in Poland.

The objective of the study was to analyze effective population size and inbreeding level in populations of cat breeds registered in the Polish Studbook. The Association of Purebred Cat Breeders in Poland provided access to pedigrees of 26725 cats from seven breeds. The most frequent breed was Persian, however increasing tendency in numbers of registered animals from other breeds was recorded in later years. Although the percentage of inbred individuals was increasing over time, mating of close relatives was avoided by most of the breeders, and the average inbreeding coefficient exceeded 5% only for Siberian and Russian breeds. Current analysis suggests that the Polish pedigree cat populations are not threatened by negative effects of inbreeding.