What is Feline Calicivirus??

Question

I want to know everything about Feline Calicivirus please tell me EVERYTHING you know!!!! Thanks!!

Answer 1

Feline calicivirus (FCV) is a virus of the family Caliciviridae that causes disease in cats. It is one of the two important viral causes of respiratory infection in cats, the other being feline herpesvirus. FCV can be isolated from about 50 percent of cats with upper respiratory infection.Cheetahs are the other species of the family Felidae known to become infected naturally.

To find out more go here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feline_cali...

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Answer 2

Feline calicivirus (FCV) is a virus of the family Caliciviridae that causes disease in cats. It is one of the two important viral causes of respiratory infection in cats, the other being feline herpesvirus. FCV can be isolated from about 50 percent of cats with upper respiratory infection. Cheetahs are the other species of the family Felidae known to become infected naturally.

There are different strains of FCV that vary in virulence. Being an RNA virus, FCV has a high elasticity of its genome which makes it more adaptable to environmental pressures. This not only makes the development of vaccines more difficult, but allows for the development of more virulent strains.In persistently infected cats, it has been shown that the gene for the major structural protein of the viral capsid evolves through immune-mediated positive selection and allows the virus to escape detection by the immune system.

A form of FCV has been found to cause a particularly severe systemic disease in cats, similar to rabbit hemorrhagic disease (which is also caused by a calicivirus). This virus has been called virulent systemic feline calicivirus (VS-FCV) or FCV-associated virulent systemic disease (VSD). The disease is caused by direct viral invasion of epithelium and endothelium and secondary host immune response. It seems that strains of VS-FCV have risen independently of one another since first being described, meaning that not all cases of VS-FCV have spread from a single case. Most of the outbreaks of VS-FCV have been reported in the United States. It was originally described in 1998 in Northern California.

The prevalence of FCV varies depending on the environment. In private households, FCV is present in about 10 percent of cats (either in active or carrier state), while the prevalence in shelters or catteries is 25 to 40 percent.

FCV replicates in the oral and respiratory tissues and is secreted in saliva, f***s, urine, and respiratory secretions. It can be transmitted through the air, orally, and on fomites. Infected cats usually shed the virus for two weeks. Following this period, infected cats never shed the virus again or become latently infected and shed the virus continuously or intermittently. Coinfection with either feline herpesvirus or feline immunodeficiency virus causes a more severe disease

Answer 3

What Is Calici ?

As mentioned, Calici is the least severe of the two most common upper respiratory viruses. All viruses are small organisms, but Calici is small even for a virus, and affects the mouth, eyes and sometimes lungs of a cat. Feline Calici virus is specific for cats.

What Does Calici Virus Do?

A)Active Disease

The effects of Calici virus vary according to the strain that has infected the cat. There are MANY strains of Calici, some of which make cats very ill while others cause only mild illness. An awareness of these variable symptoms is important in diagnosis and treatment.

Symptoms may range from nothing at all to severe pneumonia. Usually there are mouth ulcers (everywhere in the mouth, including the tongue, and sometimes the lips and nose), clear nose and eye discharge, sneezing, fever, lack of appetite and severe drooling due to the mouth ulcers. The discharge from the eyes and nose is neither as thick nor as profuse as that associated with Rhinotracheitis. The cat may also have swollen eye membranes on the inside of the eye lids.

Some strains of Calici have also been known to cause a fever and a limping, stiff walk from muscle and joint soreness in kittens. Other strains can give a pneumonia that makes breathing so difficult that the affected cats/kittens will sit crouched on their bellies trying to ease the discomfort and effort of breathing. FCV can cause death, and it is most often kittens which contract the severe form with pneumonia. How many of the above symptoms a cat gets, and to what degree, is dependent on many important things.

Age: The very young and the very old are the most affected.

Amount of Virus in Exposure: The more virus contacted, the sicker the cat will be. This can vary from a few mild signs to something very severe.

The Strain of Calici Virus: The strain will determine the symptoms.

Presence of Other Disease: The healthier a cat is, the better the natural immune system can work to fight infection. The same amount of infective virus that would make an unhealthy cat very ill may just depress and show mild signs in a healthy individual. FIV/FELV and FIP are examples of disease states which can make cats more susceptible.

Nutrition: The better the state of nutrition, the better a cat can fight the disease.

Genetics: All cats have an inherent immune system. It is difficult to explain how this relates to disease, but it has been proven that certain purebred cats are more prone to some diseases than others. The larger the population in a given environment, the more susceptible these cats will be to respiratory disease.

B)Latent and "Carrier" Disease

Once a cat or kitten has been infected with Calici virus, it will continue to spread it into the environment and to other cats even after recovery. There is no time limit to this, and it can continue for a few short weeks to as long as a few years.

Remember, a "carrier" cat is one who has been previously infected (and went through the active phase of the disease) and is now recovered. All carrier cats of Calici virus are active (currently undergoing active virus growth within their bodies) as there is NO latent form of this disease. In other words, recovered cats ARE carrier cats and can shed (spread virus to the environment and other cats) continuously.

How Do Cats Become Infected with Calici Virus?

All cats must come in contact with the virus to become infected. This virus makes its entrance internally through the eyes, nose or mouth, usually by coming in contact with a carrier or ill cat.

Direct Contact: Direct contact is from a sick or carrier cat directly to another cat. In catteries, multiple cat households and shelters, the chance of this happening are high. As the disease progresses from cat to cat, multiple, repeated infections may occur so that each successive infection produces more virus in each individual.

Indirect Contact: When a cat sneezes and deposits virus to litter pans, furnishings, and food/water bowls, the environment in which it lives becomes infected. A cat coming in contact with these objects becomes infected indirectly rather than directly from the cat who put it there. People also spread this virus from cat to cat from their hands and clothing. Indirect contact can be a source of infection in shelters, catteries or even veterinary clinics. It is possible for a cat to get infected both directly and indirectly at the same time, especially when living or boarding in the same place for a period of time with the infective cat. Calici virus can survive in the environment for 8 to 10 days, making indirect contact equally important with direct contact as a source of infection.

Infected kittens become sicker and shed more virus than adult cats. Accordingly, sick kittens are the worst source of infection to other kittens, who in turn will get even sicker and shed even more virus than the ones who gave it to them. The younger the kitten (under six weeks of age) the greater the reaction and resulting infection.

How is Calici Virus Diagnosed?

Most veterinarians will diagnose FCV based on the clinical symptoms they see. Special laboratory tests are available, however, to positively identify Calici virus if needed.

Typical Signs of Calici Virus Disease: Ulcers in the mouth, possibly accompanied by drooling, eye and nose discharge.

How Is Calici Treated?

A cat/kitten sick with FCV requires mostly supportive care for the symptoms it produces, as this is a virus infection. Veterinarians will often prescribe antibiotics as well, however, because they wish to avoid the resulting bacterial infections that happen along with the damage from the virus infection. Supportive care would depend on the symptoms and what is needed to ease those symptoms and help the cat or kitten to recover.

How Can Calici Virus Be Prevented?

Prevention of Calici virus is a two-part program, both parts of which are equally important.

Vaccination: This is the safest and easiest way to mount a defense against Calici virus. Vaccine manufacturers try to use Calici virus strains that will give "cross immunity" and protect from one strain to another. Also, once a cat /kitten has been vaccinated, an infection of Calici would /should be much milder than it would have been had the cat/kitten not been vaccinated. It should be done before infection to be most effective. Dependent on the vaccine, timing and formulation of vaccine used, vaccination can reduce or prevent Calici virus in well-managed, sanitary, multiple cat households. Which vaccines to use or how often is beyond the scope of this article, but good references are available on the subject.

Immunity: As mentioned before, there are many strains of Calici virus. Immunity to an individual strain occurs at about 10 days; however, immunity to one strain does not necessarily mean immunity to another strain ("cross immunity"). Natural infection also will cause the cats infected to pass the virus to other cats.

Management: Since cats can sneeze this virus all about them, cleaning and disinfection are necessary to reduce the load of virus in the environment. Management is needed in multiple cat catteries/shelters to apply principles such as separation of sick cats from healthy ones, and kittens into separate age groups until 12-16 weeks of age.

Answer 4

You've got the technical definitions, so I'll relate to you my experiences.  Calici is one of the upper respiratory viruses that is vaccinated against by the "distemper" vaccine.  It's easily prevented, for the most part.  But like all viruses, there are mutant strains that aren't protected against, or totally protected against, by the vaccines.  These are commonly found in shelters, who while they do their best to stay as clean as possible, are constantly taking in sick cats due to all the ferals and strays that are brought in to them.  It's like sitting in the doctor's office at the height of flu season - if you weren't sick when you entered, you will be by the time you leave.

Unvaccinated cats, and *undervaccinated* cats are at most risk, of course.  Even a vaccinated cat can develop a mild form of calici.  Some of the symptoms of one of the many calici viruses mimick other things - in kittens, often the only symptom is limping!  In other strains, you'll see heavy drooling, sometimes a fever.  Often there will be lesions in the mouth and throat, which can be very painful and then the cat won't eat.  

The virus can last between 10-14 days, sometimes as long as 3 weeks.  It is very contageous, and spreads easily if proper handwashing, etc. isn't followed.  And it isn't always the first thing that private practise vets suspect - after all, they are accustomed to dealing with pets that have been properly vaccinated.  Shelters and rescues are quicker at diagnosing it, simply because they see it more often.  

Just one of the many, many reasons to get your cat vaccinated.

Answer 5

Common Cat Viruses - The three common viruses that felines are prone to suffer from; Feline Leukemia, Feline Infectious Peritonitis and Feline Immune Deficiency Virus. FIP or Feline Infectious Peritonitis is a very dangerous illness as it is related to the Corona Virus. Testing for FIP is also a problem as the results are not completely reliable. A positive test result has the possibility for being false as the same results appear for the Corona Virus. There is a vaccination available for FIP; however, many vets believe that such results are still debatable. With no known cure, it is extremely beneficial that this disease is not as easily contracted as some other diseases may be.