Clinical Findings and Survival in Cats Naturally Infected with Feline Immunodeficiency Virus

Abstract

Background:The clinical course and outcome of natural feline immunodeficiency virus (FIV) infection are variable and incompletely understood. Assigning clinical relevance to FIV infection in individual cats represents a considerable clinical challenge.Objective: To compare signalment, hematologic and biochemical data, major clinical problem, and survival among client-owned, FIV-infected, and uninfected domestic cats.Animals: Client-owned, domestic cats tested for FIV (n = 520). Methods: Retrospective, case control study. Logistic regression analyses were conducted to identify risk factors for FIV infection and to compare hematologic and biochemical data between cases and controls, after adjusting for potential confounders. Survival times were compared using Kaplan-Meier curves.Results: The prevalence of FIV infection was 14.6%. Mixed breed, male sex, and older age were risk factors for FIV infection. Hematologic abnormalities, biochemical abnormalities or both were common in both FIV-infected and uninfected cats. Lymphoid malignancies were slightly more common in FIV-infected than uninfected cats. Survival of FIVinfected cats was not significantly different from that of uninfected cats.Conclusions and Clinical Importance: Multiple hematologic and biochemical abnormalities are common in old, sick cats regardless of their FIV status. Their presence should not be assumed to indicate clinical progression of FIV infection. A negative effect of FIV on survival was not apparent in this study.

Epidemiology and clinical outcomes of feline immunodeficiency virus and feline leukaemia virus in client-owned cats in New Zealand

“…However, we speculate within the limitations of reviewing historical medical records that many of these cats would have been euthansed anyway, regardless of confirmation, owing to the poor clinical prognosis. This likely explains why the survival times for positive cats were significantly lower in our study compared with the [20][21][22]38 Other factors that may contribute to lower survival times could include coinfection with both FIV and FeLV, 39 or other opportunistic pathogens, 40,41 as well as differences in the potential virulence of common circulating strains in New Zealand compared with other countries. 42 The preliminary investigation into risk factors for FeLV and FIV found no evidence that previous bite wounds, known exposure to infected cats or being sexually intact increased the risk of test positivity, despite these being identified in other studies as important risk factors.…”

Something old, something new

“…55 However, in some cats the clinical signs are mild, which likely reflects both heterogeneity among circulating field isolates as well as host factors, and it has been reported that many FiV-infected cats have a normal life expectancy. [56][57][58] Therefore, surrogate markers are required to provide an objective assessment of FiV progression in individual cats.…”

Feline immunodeficiency virus in puma: Estimation of force of infection reveals insights into transmission

“…Domestic cats are affected by FIV Fca , which in some cases can result in disease symptoms including immunodepression, similar to HIV infection in humans (Bȩczkowski et al, ; Diehl, Mathiason‐Dubard, O'Neil, Obert, & Hoover, ; Pedersen, Ho, Brown, & Yamamoto, ). In some instances, FIV Fca infection in domestic cats has been reported to lead to mortality (Diehl et al, ; Pedersen et al, ), although not in other studies (Addie et al, ; Hofmann‐Lehmann, Holznagel, Ossent, & Lutz, ; Liem, Dhand, Pepper, Barrs, & Beatty, ). African lions infected with their species‐specific form (FIV Ple ) have been shown to display significant CD4 depletion (Bull et al, ; Roelke et al, ) and other adverse clinical and immunological outcomes that parallel those caused by lentivirus infection in humans and domestic cats (Roelke et al, ).…”