Preprint Article Version 1 Preserved in Portico This version is not peer-reviewed

Stopping Feline Coronavirus Shedding Prevented Feline Infectious Peritonitis

Diane D. Addie
* ORCID logo ,
Flora Bellini
,
Johanna Covell-Ritchie
,
Ben Crowe
ORCID logo ,
Sheryl Curran
,
Mark Fosbery
,
Stuart Hills
,
Eric Johnson
,
Carrie Johnson
,
Steven Lloyd
,
Os Jarrett
Version 1 : Received: 20 January 2023 / Approved: 23 January 2023 / Online: 23 January 2023 (09:43:21 CET)

A peer-reviewed article of this Preprint also exists.

Addie, D.D.; Bellini, F.; Covell-Ritchie, J.; Crowe, B.; Curran, S.; Fosbery, M.; Hills, S.; Johnson, E.; Johnson, C.; Lloyd, S.; Jarrett, O. Stopping Feline Coronavirus Shedding Prevented Feline Infectious Peritonitis. Viruses 2023, 15, 818. Addie, D.D.; Bellini, F.; Covell-Ritchie, J.; Crowe, B.; Curran, S.; Fosbery, M.; Hills, S.; Johnson, E.; Johnson, C.; Lloyd, S.; Jarrett, O. Stopping Feline Coronavirus Shedding Prevented Feline Infectious Peritonitis. Viruses 2023, 15, 818.

Abstract

After an incubation period of weeks to months up to 14% of cats infected with feline coronavirus (FCoV) develop feline infectious peritonitis (FIP): a potentially lethal pyogranulomatous perivasculitis. The aim of this study was to find out if stopping FCoV faecal shedding with antivirals prevents FIP. Guardians of cats from which FCoV had been eliminated at least 6 months earlier were contacted to find out the outcome of their cats: 27 households were identified containing 147 cats; 13 cats were treated for FIP and 109 others shed FCoV. A 4-7 day course of oral GS-441524 antiviral stopped faecal virus shedding. Follow-up was from 6 months to 3.5 years: 11 of 147 cats died, but none developed FIP. No FIP-recovered cat relapsed. Cats from 8 households recovered from chronic FCoV enteropathy. A previous field study of 820 FCoV-exposed cats was used as a retrospective control group: 37 of 820 cats developed FIP: the difference was statistically significant (p = 0.0038). Conclusions: early treatment of FCoV-infected cats with oral antivirals prevented FIP. Nevertheless, should FCoV be re-introduced into a household then FIP can result. Further work is required to establish the role of FCoV in cats with inflammatory bowel disease.

Keywords

feline coronavirus; feline infectious peritonitis; FIP prevention; GS-441524; chronic enteritis; inflammatory bowel disease; IBD; antiviral; diarrhea; itraconazole.

Subject

Medicine and Pharmacology, Veterinary Medicine

Copyright: This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

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Comments (0)

Comment 1
Received: 3 February 2023
Commenter: Tsuyoshi Kamiyoshi
The commenter has declared there is no conflict of interests.
Comment: Dear Diane D. Addie,

My name is Tsuyoshi Kamiyoshi and I am a veterinarian in Japan.

Thank you for your always interesting reports.
I have a few questions about this report.

What is the duration of medication for each cat?
What percentage of cats required repeated　administration?"
What is the dosing frequency for repeated dosing?
What is the age distribution of cats?

How is antibody titer determined to be zero?
In Japan, the lowest value is less than 100 times when measured at IDEXX Lab.

FECV itself is known to exist in tissues other than the intestine.
Do you think that 4-7 days of medication is enough to eliminate FECV even in tissues other than the intestine?

What is the reason why the risk of developing FIP decreases as the period from the first FCoV infection increases?
Is this because FCoV proliferates most actively in the early stages of infection and is likely to mutate into FIPV?
Is it because FECV infection tends to occur at a young age, and as a result, FIP tends to develop at a young age when immunity is weak?

What are your thoughts on the risk of drug resistance due to short-term administration?

I look forward to your reply.

Best regards,
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