Feline coronavirus in the intestinal contents of cats with feline infectious peritonitis.

摘要

Gut contents from 33 cats, collected on the day of death , were examined by reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction. 22 of the 28 cats with natural feline infectious peritonitis (FIP) infections were positive for feline coronavirus (FCoV) including all the cats with non-effusive FIP. Samples from a control SPF cat and other cats with unrelated clinical disease were negative. One seropositive cat with cholangitis but not FIP was also positive. Although the proportion of small intestinal contents that tested negative (5 of 12) was higher than the proportion of large intestinal contents, faecal samples or rectal swabs (2 of 15), the differences were not significant. The importance of the findings to practising veterinarians is discussed. Theauthors suggest that it would be prudent not to introduce cats with no known exposure to FCoV into a household with a cat with clinical FIP. However, they suggest there is little point in isolating an infected cat from others in the same household as, bythe time clinical disease appears, the others will have been exposed.