Peer-reviewed veterinary case report
Detecting feline coronavirus in cat blood samples using mRNA PCR
By Can-Sahna, Kezban et al.·Published in Journal of feline medicine and surgery·2007·High School of Health Science·View original on PubMed →
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Original publication title: The detection of feline coronaviruses in blood samples from cats by mRNA RT-PCR.
- Species:
- cat
Plain-English summary
A cat with symptoms like fever, weight loss, and a swollen belly was tested for feline infectious peritonitis (FIP) using a specialized blood test. Out of 26 blood samples from 25 healthy cats and one sick cat, 14 tested positive for feline coronavirus (FCoV), including the sick cat. However, many healthy cats also tested positive, indicating that the test may not be reliable for diagnosing FIP in all cases. This suggests that FCoV can be found in both healthy cats and those showing signs of illness.
People also search for: cat fever weight loss swollen belly · feline infectious peritonitis test · feline coronavirus symptoms
Abstract
In this study, 26 blood samples were collected from 25 healthy cats and one cat with clinical signs suggestive of feline infectious peritonitis (FIP), namely, fever, weight loss, enlarged abdomen, and ascites. Blood samples were tested for feline coronavirus (FCoV) messenger RNA (mRNA) by an reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) assay which has previously been described to have a high specificity in the diagnosis of clinical FIP [Simons AF, Vennema H, Rofina JE, Pol JM, Horzinek MC, Rottier PJM, Egberink HF (2005) A mRNA PCR for the diagnosis of feline infectious peritonitis. Journal of Virological Methods124, 111-116]. Overall we found 14 (54%) of the cats were positive for FCoV including the cat with clinical disease, but the high rate of positivity among healthy cats suggested a poor specificity for the clinical diagnosis of FIP among these cats. It was observed that the positivity rate was highest in cats aged between 6 months-1 year old. Our findings suggest that FCoVs may be present in the blood samples from healthy cats as well as cats with clinical FIP.
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Search related cases →Original publication on PubMed: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/17478116/