tetano
Editor, Senior Moderator
When thousands of cats started to die this year on the Mediterranean island of Cyprus, nicknamed the “island of cats” for its 1-million-strong feline population, the crisis made international news. The animals had fevers, swollen bellies, and lethargy—symptoms that pointed to feline infectious peritonitis (FIP), a common condition caused by a type of cat coronavirus. But scientists struggled to explain the apparent explosion in cases.
Now, researchers have identified a possible culprit: a new strain of feline coronavirus that has coopted key RNA sequences from a highly virulent dog pathogen called pantropic canine coronavirus (pCCoV). The findings, posted as a preprint last week on bioRxiv, could help explain how severe illness managed to spread so widely among cats on the island.
“They’ve done a great job in identifying what looks to be a very interesting and concerning virus,” says Gary Whittaker, a virologist at the Cornell University College of Veterinary Medicine who was not involved in the research. Although canine-feline coronavirus crossovers have been reported before, he says, this is the first documented case of a cat coronavirus combining with pCCoV, apparently leading to a “perfect storm of both disease and transmissibility.”
Veterinarians in Cyprus raised the alarm early this year about increased cases of FIP, which is not related to COVID-19 and does not affect humans. By July, animal activists and media outlets had reported nearly 300,000 deaths, although local veterinarians revised that figure dramatically downward, to about 8000. In August, the Cypriot government agreed to the veterinary use of the human SARS-CoV-2 medication molnupiravir, which blocks coronavirus replication and appears to be an effective treatment for FIP.
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https://www.science.org/content/article/new-feline-coronavirus-blamed-thousands-cat-deaths-cyprus
When thousands of cats started to die this year on the Mediterranean island of Cyprus, nicknamed the “island of cats” for its 1-million-strong feline population, the crisis made international news. The animals had fevers, swollen bellies, and lethargy—symptoms that pointed to feline infectious peritonitis (FIP), a common condition caused by a type of cat coronavirus. But scientists struggled to explain the apparent explosion in cases.
Now, researchers have identified a possible culprit: a new strain of feline coronavirus that has coopted key RNA sequences from a highly virulent dog pathogen called pantropic canine coronavirus (pCCoV). The findings, posted as a preprint last week on bioRxiv, could help explain how severe illness managed to spread so widely among cats on the island.
“They’ve done a great job in identifying what looks to be a very interesting and concerning virus,” says Gary Whittaker, a virologist at the Cornell University College of Veterinary Medicine who was not involved in the research. Although canine-feline coronavirus crossovers have been reported before, he says, this is the first documented case of a cat coronavirus combining with pCCoV, apparently leading to a “perfect storm of both disease and transmissibility.”
Veterinarians in Cyprus raised the alarm early this year about increased cases of FIP, which is not related to COVID-19 and does not affect humans. By July, animal activists and media outlets had reported nearly 300,000 deaths, although local veterinarians revised that figure dramatically downward, to about 8000. In August, the Cypriot government agreed to the veterinary use of the human SARS-CoV-2 medication molnupiravir, which blocks coronavirus replication and appears to be an effective treatment for FIP.
...
https://www.science.org/content/article/new-feline-coronavirus-blamed-thousands-cat-deaths-cyprus
