Peer-reviewed veterinary case report
Calicivirus outbreak causing tongue and foot ulcers in captive exotic
By Harrison, Tara M et al.·Published in Journal of zoo and wildlife medicine : official publication of the American Association of Zoo Veterinarians·2007·Potter Park Zoo, United States·View original on PubMed →
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Original publication title: Systemic calicivirus epidemic in captive exotic felids.
- Species:
- cat
Plain-English summary
A 5-day-old Amur tiger cub developed painful tongue ulcers, which quickly spread to its three siblings, causing severe lesions and sloughing of their tongues and foot pads. Adult African lions and Amur tigers in the same facility also showed oral ulcers, but snow leopards did not. Testing confirmed that the cause was feline calicivirus (FCV), which was also found in a stray cat outside the facility, likely the source of the outbreak. Unfortunately, two of the cubs and one lion did not survive the infection, highlighting the seriousness of FCV in these animals.
People also search for: tiger cub tongue ulcers · feline calicivirus outbreak in cats · symptoms of calicivirus in lions
Abstract
A 5-day-old, mother-raised, Amur tiger cub (Panthera tigris altaica) presented with tongue ulcerations. Identical lesions appeared and progressed to sloughing of the tongue in the three littermates of this cub the following day. The lesions progressed in all cubs to include sloughing of the carpal, tarsal, metacarpal, and metatarsal foot pad epithelium. Oral ulcerations were also noted in adult African lions (Panthera leo) and Amur tigers (Panthera tigris altaica), but not in two adult snow leopards (Panthera uncia) housed in the same building. All adult cats had been previously vaccinated for common feline diseases including feline calicivirus (FCV). Detection of FCV RNA in oral secretions by a real-time reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction assay (RRT-PCR) confirmed FCV infection in the tiger cubs and one lion. A male lion and a male tiger cub died during the disease outbreak. RRT-PCR confirmed FCV in multiple tissues in both of these animals. A stray cat live-trapped outside the feline building during the epidemic was found to be positive for FCV by virus isolation and was thought to be the source of infection.
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Search related cases →Original publication on PubMed: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/17679514/