The strange illness first surfaced in three cats in california, shortly after AiDs began spreading in the human population in the early eighties.A distressed cat lover had brought her sick pets to Niels pederson,aprofessor of veterinary medicine at the University of california at Davis,supecting that the animals were suffering from an AIDS-like disease.the cats, which later died,were plagued by many diseases,including respiratory infection and lesions of the mouth and skin.