Study on the incidence of deafness in van cats and its distrubution by eye colors

The objectives of this study are to determine the incidence of deafness in Van cats and its distribution according to eye colors. A total of 300 (three hundred) cats that are present in Van Cat Research and Application Center and avaliable in Van Province classified into 3 (three) equal groups, aging between 2 months to 8 years were performed a hearing test with Otometrics ICS Chartr Ep 200 Clinical ABR. As a conseqeunce, deafness rate in these cats were determined as 14.33%. Additionally there were no correlation observed on sex nor on hair length while the cats that had spots on their heads were observed to have no deafness. Evaluation based on hearing treshold of Van cats revelead that majority of them had well hearing. It was determined that one-sided deafness was significantly lower in Van cats than in other white cat breeds. Therefore observation on deafness rate was found to be lower on Van cats compared to the white cat breeds. By the means of this study, Van Cat Research and Application Center will prevent the deaf cats mating in the region according to the conducted results of ABR test. It is concluded that with the future studies incidence of deafness in Van cats will decrease. This study is the first deafness study conducted in Van cats and it is worth to present because it will shed light on future studies. Key Words: Van cat, deafness, incidence