Peer-reviewed veterinary case report
Virulent systemic feline calicivirus outbreaks causing severe illness
By Schulz, Bianka S et al.·Published in Berliner und Munchener tierarztliche Wochenschrift·2011·Clinic of Small Animal Medicine, Germany·View original on PubMed →
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Original publication title: Two outbreaks of virulent systemic feline calicivirus infection in cats in Germany.
- Species:
- cat
Plain-English summary
A group of cats in Germany experienced severe symptoms from a highly contagious virus called virulent systemic feline calicivirus (VS-FCV). The affected cats showed signs like difficulty breathing, high fever, mouth and paw ulcers, and even bleeding disorders. Unfortunately, both outbreaks had a high death rate among the cats. The researchers confirmed the presence of the virus through testing and noted that the strains involved were genetically different from previous ones seen in other outbreaks. This highlights the ongoing risk of this serious infection in cats.
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Abstract
Over the last years, several outbreaks of virulent systemic feline calicivirus (VS-FCV) infection have been described in the USA and several European countries. The paper describes two outbreaks of VS-FCV infection in cats in Germany. Data concerning clinical, laboratory, and histopathological features ofVS-FCV infection were collected from two outbreaks affecting 55 and 4 cats, respectively. Presence of feline calicivirus was confirmed by PCR followed by sequencing of the PCR-products. Clinical signs were variable, including severe upper respiratory tract infection, dyspnoea, oral and footpad ulceration, facial oedema, enteritis, pneumonia, bleeding disorder, high fever, and icterus. Both outbreaks were characterized by a high mortality rate.The present report describes the first documented outbreaks of VS-FCV infection in cats in Germany. Clinical and histopathological features are comparable to outbreaks described in the USA and Europe. However, phylogenetic analysis of the virus genome suggests that virus strains involved in these outbreaks were different from each other and from virulent strains isolated before, confirming the known genetic variability of FCV.
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Search related cases →Original publication on PubMed: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/22059287/