Necrotizing Pneumonia in a Cat Caused by an Orthopox Virus

Lower Respiratory Tract Infections in Cats

“…172 Until recently, cases of pulmonary infection and pneumonia have been associated with fatality. [173][174][175] Johnson et al, however, recently described a cat that recovered from a necrotising bronchopneumonia in which both cowpox virus and FHV were confirmed using histopathology, scanning electron microscopy and isolation of poxvirus from skin lesions. 172 Such investigations would be rare on live cats so it is possible that resolving pneumonia due to cowpox may have been underreported.…”

Generalized Fatal Cowpox virus Infection in a Cat with Transmission to a Human Contact Case

“…The case described here represented a rather untypical example of a fatal cowpox virus infection in a domestic shorthair cat because of the simultaneous occurrence of severe dermatitis, necrotizing rhinitis and pneumonia. In general, CPXV‐induced pneumonia in domestic cats is mild (Bennett and Baxby, 1995) and only a few cases of fatal CPXV‐pneumonia have been reported so far (Mahnel et al., 1989; Hinrichs et al., 1999). As in this case, CPXV forms a potential risk to human health especially after the eradication of the smallpox virus in 1979 (World Health Organisation, 1980) and ceasing the vaccination programmes afterwards.…”

“…There is good evidence that wildlife rodents are the reservoir in nature (Marennikova et al., 1977; Baxby et al., 1994; Czerny et al., 1996; Hazel et al., 2000). Severe illness or even lethal outcome due to CPXV‐induced pneumonia occurs rarely in domestic cats (von Bomhard et al., 1989; Hinrichs et al., 1999), but is well known in non‐domestic cats from zoological parks, especially cheetahs (Naidoo et al., 1992). Human infections usually result from direct skin affections causing single lesions at the inoculation site (Baxby, 1988; Baxby et al., 1994).…”

Raccoonpox in a Canadian cat

“…In exotic felids, the secondary phase may be associated with pneumonia and a high mortality rate 2 . In domestic cats, typically only patients with concurrent diseases or suffering immunosuppression are severely affected 8,17 . Feline cowpox is a zoonosis, but the risk of transmission to people is low 3 …”

“…2 In domestic cats, typically only patients with concurrent diseases or suffering immunosuppression are severely affected. 8,17 Feline cowpox is a zoonosis, but the risk of transmission to people is low. 3 While cowpox is the usual virus responsible for pox infection in cats, there is a single case report of pseudocowpox caused by the parapoxvirus responsible for orf (contagious ecthyma) in sheep.…”