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Antigenicity
- One serotype
Hosts
- Cats
- Mink
- Raccoons
- Pandas
Pathogenesis
- Also known as Feline Infectious Enteritis and Feline Panleukopenia
- Often fatal
- Pyrexia, severe enteritis (often bloody), dehydration, leukopenia, anemia
- Kittens <2 weeks show cerebellar hypoplasia
- Kittens more susceptible than cats
- Oral infection
- Initial replication in pharyngeal lymphoid tissue
- Viremia
- Virus targets rapidly dividing cells: lymph nodes, bone marrow, crypts of small intestine
Epidemiology
- Infection by direct contact and fomites
- Subclinical infections occur
- Virus excretion can be persistent
- Endemic worldwide
Diagnosis
- Clinical signs
- Hematology: leukopenia
- Can be confirmed by haemagglutination (HA) or ELISA using feces
Control
- Inactivated vaccines are available and essential for boarding
- Administered parenterally post-weaning to induce a systemic immune response to neutralize viremia
- Annual booster