Peer-reviewed veterinary case report
Genetic study of feline coronavirus in cats during FIP outbreak
By Barker, E N et al.·Published in Journal of veterinary internal medicine·2013·School of Veterinary Sciences, United Kingdom·View original on PubMed →
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Original publication title: Phylogenetic analysis of feline coronavirus strains in an epizootic outbreak of feline infectious peritonitis.
- Species:
- cat
Plain-English summary
Four cats were euthanized due to feline infectious peritonitis (FIP), a serious disease caused by feline coronavirus (FCoV). During an outbreak, researchers collected samples from these sick cats and compared them to fecal samples from 16 healthy cats. They found that the FCoV strains in the sick cats were very similar to those in the healthy cats, suggesting that the same strain was circulating among both groups. This study helps clarify that there weren't distinct harmful and harmless strains present during this outbreak, which can be important for understanding how FIP spreads.
People also search for: cat FIP symptoms · feline coronavirus outbreak · how is FIP transmitted · treatment for feline infectious peritonitis
Abstract
BACKGROUND: Feline coronavirus (FCoV) infection is common. In a small percentage of cats, FCoV infection is associated with the fatal disease feline infectious peritonitis (FIP). Genetically distinct virulent and avirulent strains of FCoV might coexist within a cat population. OBJECTIVES: To determine whether the strains of FCoV in FIP-affected cats are closely related or genetically distinct from the fecally derived strains of FCoV in contemporary-asymptomatic cats during an epizootic outbreak of FIP. ANIMALS: Four cats euthanized because of FIP and 16 asymptomatic cats. METHODS: This prospective outbreak investigation was initiated during an outbreak of FIP in cats within or rehomed from a rescue/rehoming center. Postmortem samples were collected from cats with FIP and contemporaneous fecal samples from asymptomatic cats. RNA was purified from tissue and fecal samples, FCoV gene fragments were reverse transcribed, PCR-amplified using novel primers, and sequenced. Sequences were aligned with ClustalW and compared with published FCoV sequences. RESULTS: FCoV RNA was detected in all 4 FIP cat postmortem samples and in 9 of the 16 fecal samples from contemporary-asymptomatic cats. Novel primers successfully amplified fragments from 4 regions of the genome for all FCoV-positive samples. Phylogenetic analysis showed that the FIP-associated strains of FCoV from the outbreak were very closely related to the fecally derived strains of FCoV from contemporary-asymptomatic cats. CONCLUSIONS AND CLINICAL IMPORTANCE: Sequence analysis provided no evidence that genetically distinct virulent and avirulent strains of FCoV were present during this FIP outbreak.
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Search related cases →Original publication on PubMed: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/23517431/