Prevalence of feline coronavirus, feline leukemia virus, and feline immunodeficiency virus in client-owned cats in Croatia

Jelena Raukar

doi:10.24297/jns.v8i.9091

Abstract

This study aimed to determine prevalences for anti-FCoV antibody, FeLV antigen, FeLV proviral DNA, and anti-FIV antibody among client-owned cats from the cities of Zagreb and Varaždin in Croatia. Subjects included 106 client-owned cats tested at the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Vienna, Austria. Blood samples were tested with IFA for anti-FCoV antibody and IFA FCoV antibody titeres, with ELISA for FeLV p27 antigen, with PCR for FeLV proviral DNA, and with RIM for anti-FIV antibody. Prevalence of FCoV and FeLV was 41.51% and 6.60%, respectively. A coinfection with FeLV/FCoV and FIV/FCoV prevalence was 7.55% and 5.66%. No cats were coinfected with FIV and FeLV. All three viruses were detected, confirming their presence in Croatia. The seroepidemiological findings demonstrate that both feline retroviruses and feline coronavirus are important feline pathogens in Croatia.

Highlights

Feline coronavirus (FCoV) belongs to the family of Coronaviridae within the order Nidovirales [1,2,3]
This study confirmed the presence of FCoV, Feline leukemia virus (FeLV), and feline immunodeficiency virus (FIV) infections and coinfections with FeLV/FCoV and FIV/FCoV in the cities of Zagreb and Varaždin
The seroepidemiological findings from this study demonstrate that both feline retroviruses and feline coronavirus are important feline pathogens in the owned cat population in the cities of Zagreb and Varaždin

Summary

Introduction

Feline coronavirus (FCoV) belongs to the family of Coronaviridae within the order Nidovirales [1,2,3]. Infection with FCoV is prevalent in pet cats [4]. The prevalence of FCoV in the cat population is very high in multi-cat environments [4]. One study in Israel, Baneth et al, 1999 [5] reported that 83.3% of cats from animal shelters were positive for antibodies against FCoV. In Malaysia, the positive rate of FCoV infection was 84% in cats from catteries [4]. European prevalence is reported to range from 31% to 64% [6,7] when client-owned cats are examined

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