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Home » Archive » 2020

TDK conference 2020

Feline hepadnavirus prevalence in domestic cats in Hungary
Varga Zoltán - year 6
University of Veterinary Medicine Budapest, Department of Pathology
Supervisor: Dr. Anna Szilasi

Abstract:

In 2018, the first orthohepadna virus was isolated in domestic cats in Australia. Further

research has shown that the incidence of liver dystrophy and hepatocellular carcinoma was

significantly higher in addition to frequent co-infection with feline immunodeficiency virus

(FIV). Our research aims to examine whether feline hepadnavirus can be found in the

Hungarian cat population, and whether the finding will be in correlation with previously

published studies that a large percentage of animals infected with the virus may show deviation

in liver parameters. The cats involved in the research were chosen independetly of sex, breed,

age, and of other diseases, thus ensuring the widest possible coverage. Later we divided the

animals into two groups, whether there was an increase in liver parameters or not. The method

of our study, after nucleic acid extraction from whole blood, was real-time polymerase chain

reaction assay (real-time PCR). Out of 145 feline whole blood samples, we found 8 PCR-

positive cases (5.52%). This result is in correlation with previously published scientific data.

Unfortunately, now we could not find any correlation with elevated liver parameters in

bloodwork, or any hepatic lesion, nor parallel retroviral infection in DCH-positive patients.

Continuing this study, we will analyse the isolated DCH-strains with Sanger sequencing, then

we will make a phylogenetic study comparing our sequences to those can be found currently in

the GenBank.



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