Abstract
Feline panleukopenia (FPL), a frequently fatal disease of cats, is caused by feline parvovirus (FPV) or canine parvovirus (CPV). We investigated simultaneous outbreaks of FPL between 2014 and 2018 in Australia, New Zealand and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) where FPL outbreaks had not been reported for several decades. Case data from 989 cats and clinical samples from additional 113 cats were obtained to determine the cause of the outbreaks and epidemiological factors involved. Most cats with FPL were shelter-housed, 9 to 10 weeks old at diagnosis, unvaccinated, had not completed a primary vaccination series or had received vaccinations noncompliant with current guidelines. Analysis of parvoviral VP2 sequence data confirmed that all FPL cases were caused by FPV and not CPV. Phylogenetic analysis revealed that each of these outbreaks was caused by a distinct FPV, with two virus lineages present in eastern Australia and virus movement between different geographical locations. Viruses from the UAE outbreak formed a lineage of unknown origin. FPV vaccine virus was detected in the New Zealand cases, highlighting the difficulty of distinguishing the co-incidental shedding of vaccine virus in vaccinated cats. Inadequate vaccination coverage in shelter-housed cats was a common factor in all outbreaks, likely precipitating the multiple re-emergence of infection events.
Highlights
Feline panleukopenia (FPL) is a highly contagious and often fatal disease characterised by acute severe enteritis, severe dehydration and sepsis due to lymphoid depletion and pancytopenia [1]
Data were received from 610 cases of FPL diagnosed in Australia between January 2014 and September 2018 from 11 animal shelters, 2 rescue societies and 11 veterinary hospitals
There are no previous published reports of FPL outbreaks in any of these regions for comparison, there is anecdotal first-hand experience of FPL among veterinarians practicing in Australia from the late 1960s to the mid-1970s, before commercial vaccines were used routinely [1]
Summary
Feline panleukopenia (FPL) is a highly contagious and often fatal disease characterised by acute severe enteritis, severe dehydration and sepsis due to lymphoid depletion and pancytopenia [1]. FPL is usually associated with infection by feline parvovirus (FPV), a member of the genus Protoparvovirus (formerly Feline panleukopenia virus). FPV and canine parvovirus (CPV), along with associated variants found in various carnivore species such as mink and raccoons, constitute the species Carnivore protoparvovirus 1 [2]. Until the 1980s, FPV was the only reported viral cause of FPL in cats. FPV is able to infect cats by first binding to the feline transferrin receptor (fTfR) expressed on the surface of cells, followed by clathrin-mediated endocytosis to initiate infection [3]. Canine parvovirus CPV-2 emerged in the late
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