Since a similar syndrome, called the nude syndrome, has been deciphered in mice, rats and humans and because the proband kitten died in its first months of age from a presumable intestinal infection, we opted for a candidate gene approach targeting the FOXN1 gene which loss-of-function mutations had been shown to produce the nude phenotype in rodents and humans [15,20]. This evidence concerns the gene FOXN1 and digestive system infectious disorder.