Organ damage seen in cats with fatal feline panleukopenia virus

Abstract

Feline panleukopenia is a highly contagious and often fatal disease affecting both domestic and wild felines. The current study aimed to investigate the macroscopic and microscopic lesions in various organs of cats with feline panleukopenia. History and clinical examination of the infected cats revealed inappetence/ anorexia, vomiting, diarrhoea, dehydration, respiratory stress and oral lesions. Feline panleukopenia was diagnosed by using rapid antigen detection kit and further confirmation was done by polymerase chain reaction (PCR). During the present study, six kittens did not respond to treatment and succumbed to the disease. A systematic post-mortem examination was performed on the dead animals and macroscopic lesions were recorded. The tissue samples from various vital organs such as the heart, lungs, liver, spleen kidney, intestine and mesenteric lymph node were collected in 10% neutral buffered formalin and processed for histopathological examination. The macroscopic examination revealed enlarged flabby left ventricular wall of heart, pneumonic lungs with infarction, hepatomegaly with distended gallbladder, splenomegaly with congestion, pale enlarged kidneys, enlarged and edematous mesenteric lymph nodes, and thickened and pale intestinal loops with hemorrhage on the mucosal layer. The major microscopic lesions were separation of muscle fibers with loss of cross striations and severe hemorrhages in the heart, severe congestion in the alveolar capillaries with emphysematous areas, degenerating hepatocytes with a mild degree of fatty changes, lymphoid depletion of the spleen, hemorrhages in the interstitial spaces with microthrombus formation in the interstitium and the glomerular tuft of the kidneys, severely affected mucosal layer with sloughed villi with enlarged crypts containing degenerating crypt epithelium, and depletion of lymphoid follicles of mesenteric lymph nodes. Very few reports are available on the pathological aspects of feline panleukopenia and thus the outcome of the present study can yield valuable information to aid in the diagnosis of feline panleukopenia in cats under field conditions.