scholarly journals Molecular Detection of Feline Leukemia Virus in Oral, Conjunctival, and Rectal Mucosae Provides Results Comparable to Detection in Blood

2019 ◽  
Vol 58 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Raphael Mattoso Victor ◽  
Juliana Marques Bicalho ◽  
Manuela Bamberg Andrade ◽  
Bruna Lopes Bueno ◽  
Luiza Rodrigues Alves de Abreu ◽  
...  

ABSTRACT Feline leukemia virus (FeLV) infection causes immunosuppression, degeneration of the hematopoietic system, and fatal neoplasms. FeLV transmission occurs mainly by close social contact of infected and susceptible cats. Developing procedures for the diagnosis of feline retroviruses is crucial to reduce negative impacts on cat health and increase the number of animals tested. Blood collection requires physical or chemical restraint and is usually a stressful procedure for cats. Our objective was to evaluate the use of samples obtained from oral, conjunctival, and rectal mucosae for the molecular diagnosis of FeLV. Whole blood and oral, conjunctival, and rectal swabs were collected from a total of 145 cats. All samples were subjected to the amplification of a fragment of the gag gene of proviral DNA. Compared to blood samples used in this study as a reference, the accuracies for each PCR were 91.72, 91.23, and 85.50% for samples obtained by oral, conjunctival, and rectal swabs, respectively. The diagnostic sensitivity and specificity were 86.11 and 97.26% for the oral swabs, 90 and 92.59% for the conjunctival swabs, and 74.24 and 95.77% for the rectal swabs, respectively. The kappa values for oral, conjunctival, and rectal swabs were 0.834, 0.824, and 0.705, respectively. The diagnosis of these samples showed the presence of proviral DNA of FeLV in oral and conjunctival mucosae. In conclusion, mucosal samples for the molecular diagnosis of FeLV are an excellent alternative to venipuncture and can be safely used. It is faster, less laborious, less expensive, and well received by the animal.

2021 ◽  
Vol 8 ◽  
pp. 24-38
Author(s):  
Jelena Raukar

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.


2008 ◽  
Vol 89 (11) ◽  
pp. 2799-2805 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fabiana Magalhães Coelho ◽  
Maria Rosa Quaresma Bomfim ◽  
Fabíola de Andrade Caxito ◽  
Natália Almeida Ribeiro ◽  
Marcela Miranda Luppi ◽  
...  

A nested-PCR (n-PCR) was used to detect feline leukemia virus (FeLV) proviral DNA in blood samples from 464 sick and 608 healthy domestic cats (Felis catus) selected by convenience, and a significantly high prevalence of FeLV infection was observed. n-PCR results revealed the presence of FeLV proviral DNA in 47.2 % of sick cats and 47.4 % of healthy cats. Phylogenetic analysis revealed that FeLV samples from healthy or sick cats were grouped into separate clades. We determined FeLV subgroups by an n-PCR based on the envelope (env) gene. The partial env gene of FeLV Minas Gerais (MG) samples were compared to various exogenous FeLV isolates and endogenous (enFeLV) provirus from the same region. FeLV-B MG samples were more similar to endogenous sequences and to natural FeLV-B isolates than to either FeLV-A or FeLV-C. The results revealed the circulation of FeLV-B in large populations of urban domestic cats in Brazil.


Viruses ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 302 ◽  
Author(s):  
Melissa J. Beall ◽  
Jesse Buch ◽  
Genevieve Clark ◽  
Marko Estrada ◽  
Andrei Rakitin ◽  
...  

Longitudinal studies of cats naturally infected with feline leukemia virus (FeLV) are important for understanding disease outcomes. Levels of p27 antigen and copy numbers of proviral DNA have been associated with FeLV-infection courses. The purpose of this prospective study was to establish cutoff values for p27 antigen concentration and proviral DNA load that distinguished high positive from low positive groups of cats and to evaluate an association with survival. At enrollment, 254 cats were tested by point-of-care and microtiter plate enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays (ELISAs) for p27 antigen and real-time polymerase chain reaction (PCR) for proviral DNA. The 127 positive cats were retested monthly for six months and monitored for survival over the four-year study. A receiver operating characteristic-based analysis of samples with concordant or discordant qualitative results for p27 antigen and proviral DNA was used to establish cutoff values, and when applied to test results at enrollment for classifying cats as high positive or low positive, a significant difference in survival was observed. High positive cats had a median survival of 1.37 years (95% CI 0.83–2.02) from time of enrollment, while most low positive cats were still alive (93.1% survival). Quantitative results for p27 antigen concentration and proviral DNA load were highly correlated with survival times in FeLV-infected cats.


2014 ◽  
Vol 2014 ◽  
pp. 1-10 ◽  
Author(s):  
Faruku Bande ◽  
Siti Suri Arshad ◽  
Latiffah Hassan ◽  
Zunita Zakaria

A nested PCR assay was used to determine the viral RNA and proviral DNA status of naturally infected cats. Selected samples that were FeLV-positive by PCR were subjected to sequencing, phylogenetic analysis, and motifs search. Of the 39 samples that were positive for FeLV p27 antigen, 87.2% (34/39) were confirmed positive with nested PCR. FeLV proviral DNA was detected in 38 (97.3%) of p27-antigen negative samples. Malaysian FeLV isolates are found to be highly similar with a homology of 91% to 100%. Phylogenetic analysis revealed that Malaysian FeLV isolates divided into two clusters, with a majority (86.2%) sharing similarity with FeLV-K01803 and fewer isolates (13.8%) with FeLV-GM1 strain. Different enhancer motifs including NF-GMa, Krox-20/WT1I-del2, BAF1, AP-2, TBP, TFIIF-beta, TRF, and TFIID are found to occur either in single, duplicate, triplicate, or sets of 5 in different positions within the U3-LTR-gag region. The present result confirms the occurrence of FeLV viral RNA and provirus DNA in naturally infected cats. Malaysian FeLV isolates are highly similar, and a majority of them are closely related to a UK isolate. This study provides the first molecular based information on FeLV in Malaysia. Additionally, different enhancer motifs likely associated with FeLV related pathogenesis have been identified.


2015 ◽  
Vol 22 (7) ◽  
pp. 798-805 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. Patel ◽  
K. Carritt ◽  
J. Lane ◽  
H. Jayappa ◽  
M. Stahl ◽  
...  

ABSTRACTFour vaccines for feline leukemia virus (FeLV) are available in the United States. This study's purpose was to compare the efficacy of Nobivac feline 2-FeLV (an inactivated, adjuvanted whole-virus vaccine) and PureVax recombinant FeLV (a live, canarypox virus-vectored vaccine) following FeLV challenge. Cats were vaccinated at 9 and 12 weeks with Nobivac feline 2-FeLV (group A,n= 11) or PureVax recombinant FeLV (group B,n= 10). Group C (n= 11) comprised unvaccinated controls. At 3 months postvaccination, cats were immunosuppressed and challenged with FeLV-A/61E. The outcomes measured were persistent antigenemia at 12 weeks postchallenge (PC) and proviral DNA and viral RNA at 3 to 9 weeks PC. Persistent antigenemia was observed in 0 of 11 cats in group A, 5 of 10 cats in group B, and 10 of 11 cats in group C. Group A was significantly protected compared to those in groups B (P< 0.013) and C (P< 0.0001). No difference was found between groups B and C (P> 0.063). The preventable fraction was 100% for group A and 45% for group B. At 9 weeks PC, proviral DNA and viral RNA were detected 1 of 11 cats in group A, 6 of 10 cats in group B, and 9 of 11 cats in group C. Nucleic acid loads were significantly lower in group A than in group C (P< 0.01). Group A had significantly lower proviral DNA loads than group B at weeks 6 to 9 (P< 0.02). The viral RNA loads were significantly lower in group A than in group B at weeks 7 to 9 (P< 0.01). The results demonstrate that Nobivac feline 2-FeLV-vaccinated cats were fully protected against persistent antigenemia and had significantly smaller amounts of proviral DNA and plasma viral RNA loads than PureVax recombinant FeLV-vaccinated cats and unvaccinated controls.


1975 ◽  
Vol 16 (3) ◽  
pp. 535-545 ◽  
Author(s):  
D A Brian ◽  
A R Thomason ◽  
F M Rottman ◽  
L F Velicer

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