Working for the protection of Siberian gene pool

At some point, back in 2015, we noticed that it was becoming nearly impossible to find a Siberian cat that was not overly mixed with Neva lines.

With over 20 years of Neva mixing and Siberians breeders clearly outnumbered by mixers, we decided to react and with the help and support of my Mentor, Onofre Martinez, the group Clean Genealogy was created along with the information website and club “International Siberian Breeders Club”.

The ISBC and clean Genealogy project was created in 2015 with the the purpose of “reviving” the real traditional breeding, to assemble people who are willing to work with serious and effective goals and who think alike.
One of the goals of our group is indeed to preserve the lines free of nem but this is only part of the work.

Quality is not an accident, it is in the genes.

At clean Genealogy we have spent close to 8,000 euros (all together) and we will reach very soon 100 cats tested, the equivalent of 10,000 euros in DNA testing with “MyCatDNA” in order to select cats with highest diversity and eliminate undesired traits, may they be diseases, blood group, Cs carriers etc. All our tests are public and our work is transparent. Our members are invited to take part in Pawpeds HCM health program and test their cats with Pawpeds’ chosen cardiologists.

We encourage a very high diversity and variety of bloodlines by choosing the right matches according to DNA profiles.

We have a solid Riex (bringing new cats) program that involves the following: testing and eliminating undesired traits or subjects (all tests are public).

We are deciding with the help of geneticists what percentage of foundation cats can be brought into our representative “mini pool gene” in a safe way. Currently, we have a maximum quota of only two new QUALITY foundation cats per geographical area in Russia (every 4 years).

For this we created a database with all our cats / all tested cats / all our Riex cats and finally all clean cats that do not belong to us to give us a clear idea of what we have available and a safe percentage of new blood.

We observe our Riex kittens for at least a couple of years (3 years in my case) BEFORE selling them to other breeders to ensure the results are positive to be released on Siberian pool gene.

We warn our pet owners when one of the parents is Riex and if they decide they want the kitten and to cooperate, we invite them to work with us by providing information on the cats: temperament, health etc. Pet owners want to find all the qualities of a Siberian cat, such as temperament and health, so it is only fair they are warned when the match is experimental.

We work of course with the rules of old + new and we have very few pedigrees with more than one “empty space”.

We are happy to share our knowledge with anyone who wants to work seriously and even if the person does not want to work in a group. We share the information in our site. We share lines, swap kittens and we cooperate in every way.

We count on the participation and guidance of geneticists, judges, and the older mentors present in our group which is a extremely important and valuable help.

Here a few of the names associated to the ISBC and who work actively with us: Helen Schevchenko, Maria Pavlovsky, Alexander Kolesnikov, Onofre Martinez, Natalya Kosareva and many other big names among Siberian breeders.

We have built an Academy in order to explain our work and also teach new breeders.

Each of us only sell a couple of quality kittens to breeders each year nearly as a “favour” in order to share lines. NONE of us sell large numbers of breeding cats and none of us use the group to sell cats.

We created a website to reach as many new breeders as possible and this new website you are navigating now is designed to explain our work to pet owners and that can be used as a guide.

We document all our older cats by creating “pages on the website”, telling their story and sharing all practical data, and we are going to keep and store all older pedigrees, genetic material and data for the future.

This work is time consuming and costly but we are happy to do it and we have “key people” teaching and creating groups in their own country.

The name Clean Genealogy does not have a “copyright” and we are happy to see people using the name “neva free” or even “CG”. It was one of the goals of our group TO MAKE people want to breed clean Siberian cats again but as a pet owner, if you see a breeder using these names, you still have to check the work being done because some will use the name of the group but are not a member and do not follow the directives given about health and the ethical breeding which the ISBC stands by.

We have a logo and most of our members have the logo in their site.

Daniela Barros.