Abstract
BackgroundDiarrhea is one of the most common clinical symptoms in cats and can be caused by infectious pathogens and investigation of the prevalence, co-infection and seasonality of enteropathogens are not well-established in diarrheic cats.ResultsFecal samples of 1620 diarrheic cats were collected and enteropathogens were detected using real-time PCR. We retrospectively investigated the clinical features, total/seasonal prevalence, and infection patterns of enteropathogens. The positive infection rate was 82.59%. Bacterial, viral, and protozoal infections accounted for 49.3, 37.57, and 13.13% of cases, respectively. Feline enteric coronavirus (FECV) was the most common pathogen (29.37%), followed by Clostridium (C.) perfringens, Campylobacter (C.) coli, feline parvovirus, and Tritrichomonas foetus. The seasonality of enteropathogens was observed with peaks as follows: bacterial infections peaked in October, viral infections peaked in November, and protozoal infections peaked in August. Viral and protozoal infections showed differences in prevalence according to patient age. In the infection patterns, the ratios of single infections, mixed infections, and co-infections were 35.72, 9.87, and 54.41%, respectively. FECV was predominant in single infections. The most common patterns of multiple infections were C. perfringens and C. coli in mixed infections and C. perfringens and FECV in co-infections.ConclusionsInfection patterns differed according to the enteropathogen species, seasonality, and age distribution in cats. The results of this study might be helpful to understand in clinical characteristics of feline infectious diarrhea. In addition, continued monitoring of feline enteropathogens is required.
Highlights
Diarrhea is the most common clinical symptom of feline gastrointestinal diseases [1, 2]
This is the first large-scale study to evaluate the clinical features and prevalence of 19 feline enteropathogens using real-time Reverse transcription (RT)-Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) in the Republic of Korea
Most of the diarrheic cats in our study were diagnosed with enteropathogens, with feline enteric coronavirus (FECV), Clostridium perfringens, Campylobacter spp., E. coli, and feline parvovirus (FPV) being the more common pathogens isolated from the stool of diarrheic cats
Summary
Diarrhea is the most common clinical symptom of feline gastrointestinal diseases [1, 2]. One pathogen can cause diarrhea; several pathogens can infect a single cat simultaneously owing to shared pathogenesis with a particular pathogen or a symbiotic relationship [5]. In these cases, because of the variability of enteropathogens, treatment of patients with multiple infections is more challenging than the treatment of those with single infections, resulting in increased economic costs. Diarrhea is one of the most common clinical symptoms in cats and can be caused by infectious patho‐ gens and investigation of the prevalence, co-infection and seasonality of enteropathogens are not well-established in diarrheic cats
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