Detection of Feline Coronaviruses by Culture and Reverse Transcriptase-polymerase Chain Reaction of Blood Samples from Healthy Cats and Cats with Clinical Feline Infectious Peritonitis

Overview

Journal Vet Microbiol

Specialties Microbiology
Veterinary Medicine

Date 1998 Oct 29

PMID 9791867

Citations 53

Authors

D A Gunn-Moore

T J Gruffydd-Jones

D A Harbour

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

A reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) assay for the detection of the feline coronavirus (FCoV) genome and a co-cultivation method for the isolation of field strains of FCoV are described. Using the RT-PCR assay to assess blood samples from cats with feline infectious peritonitis (FIP) (n = 47) and healthy cats from households with endemic FCoV (n = 69) it was shown that approximately 80% of the cats were viraemic, irrespective of their health status. It was also shown that, over a 12-month period, a similar percentage of healthy cats remained viraemic, and that the presence of viraemia did not appear to predispose the cats to the development of FIP. The co-cultivation system proved to be a suitable method for the culture of field strains of FCoV from blood samples, so long as the cultures were maintained for at least 4 weeks. Using this system, followed by the RT-PCR, viraemia was detected as frequently as by RT-PCR on RNA extracted directly from peripheral blood mononuclear cells.

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