CLINICO-EPIDEMIOLOGICAL STUDIES AND MOLECULAR DIAGNOSIS OF FELINE PANLEUKOPENIA IN CATS
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Date
2019-10-21
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COLLEGE OF VETERINARY AND ANIMAL SCIENCES, POOKODE WAYANAD
Abstract
The present study envisaged to undertake serosurveillance and to
investigate the clinico-epidemiological features of feline panleukopenia in North
Kerala. The study also aimed at comparing haemagglutination inhibition test (HI)
and Loop Mediated Isothermal Amplification (LAMP) with Polymerase chain
reaction (PCR) for detection of Feline Panleukopenia Virus (FPV) from faecal
samples of affected cats.
An indirect sandwich ELISA was done on 79 unvaccinated healthy cats to
detect circulating antibodies against FPV, which revealed a prevalence of 29.11
per cent. Analysis across various epidemiological profiles revealed no statistical
difference, indicating equal rate of exposure across all epidemiological parameters.
Feline panleukopenia virus DNA was detected in 34 out of 40 faecal
samples by PCR. Epidemiological analysis revealed higher occurrence of feline
panleukopenia in cats aged less than six months, among females and non-descript
cats. Stray cats, multiple cat households and cats without any deworming history
were more frequently affected. Pyrexia, dysentery, vomiting, dehydration and
respiratory distress were predominant clinical findings. The affected cats suffered
from anaemia, thrombocytopenia, leucopoenia and elevated liver enzymes.
Ultrasonography revealed gas and fluid filled intestinal loops.
PCR targeting the VP2 gene of FPV resulted in 698bp amplicons which
was sequenced. BLAST analysis of the sequence revealed similarity to feline
panleukopenia virus. Haemagglutination was observed in 25 faecal samples, out
of which haemagglutination inhibition assay confirmed the presence of FPV in ten
samples and a kappa score of 0.1 indicated poor agreement to PCR. In contrast,
LAMP detected 36 out of 40 samples tested by PCR. Even though all the PCR
negative samples were lamp negative, two of the PCR negative samples were
positive by LAMP. Statistical analysis revealed a high quotient of agreement
between PCR and LAMP. LAMP had 100 per cent sensitivity and positive
predictive value with 67 per cent specificity and 94 per cent negative predictive
value compared to PCR. The potential of LAMP as a diagnostic tool in limited
resource settings can be exploited for rapid diagnosis of infectious diseases.