TITLE:
Epidemiological Aspects and Clinicopathological Findings in Cats Naturally Infected with Feline Leukemia Virus (FeLV) and/or Feline Immunodeficiency Virus (FIV)
AUTHORS:
Victorio M. Collado, Ana Domenech, Guadalupe Miró, Sonsoles Martin, Elena Escolar, Esperanza Gomez-Lucia
KEYWORDS:
FIV; FeLV; Epidemiology; Hemogram; CD4:CD8 Ratio
JOURNAL NAME:
Open Journal of Veterinary Medicine,
Vol.2 No.1,
March
27,
2012
ABSTRACT: Infections produced by feline immunodeficiency virus (FIV) and feline leukemia virus (FeLV), two of the most prevalent pathogens in cats, range from passing unnoticed to presenting a wide variety of clinical signs. Different epidemiological, clinical, hematological and virological parameters were analyzed in 78 FIV- and/or FeLV-infected cats. FeLV-infected (FeLV+) cats were considerably younger than FIV-infected (FIV+) cats, and in general were seen to have a more severe disease than FIV+ cats. Around one third of the cats presented anemia, and neutropenia was also frequently observed. Though a higher percentage of FIV+ than FeLV+ cats had altered leukocyte counts, FeLV+ cats had altered counts of both neutrophils and lymphocytes more frequently than FIV+, which usually presented only either altered neutrophils or lymphocyte counts. Virological markers were only detected in FeLV+cats, either as mono- or dual-infection, and correlated with the severity of the disease, but not in FIV+ cats. In conclusion, these results suggest that FeLV affects more blood cell types and provokes death of affected animals at a much earlier age than FIV and that the severity of the disease seemed to depend on the viral status of the cat.