TDK conference 2020

Feline leukemia virus (FeLV) and feline immunodeficiency virus (FIV) both belong to the most common retroviral diseases worldwide affecting domestic cats as well as wild felids. Both viruses can cause diseases with fatal outcomes in cats. The aim of this thesis was to further determine the prevalence of both retroviruses in domestic cats in Hungary, continuing a previous study. In total 335 whole blood samples were obtained from domestic cats from 24 animal clinics over a time period of three years (2016–2018). Sheltered or free-roaming cats were excluded from this survey. The blood samples were analysed by two established methods, e.g. polymerase chain rection (PCR) and enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). By reverse transcription PCR (RT-PCR) a specific region of the RNA genome was amplified for detection. The commercially available ELISA kits used were directed against the p27 protein (FeLV) or antibodies recognizing the p24 antigen (FIV), respectively. For a statistical analysis the R-project was used. The true prevalence of FeLV calculated from the ELISA test results in Hungary was 11.8% and for FIV it was 9.9%. The apparent prevalence obtained from the PCR results for FeLV was 17.3% and for FIV it was 13.1% indicating a reasonable agreement between both methods (Cohen’s kappa value was 0.79). Our data show that compared to other countries, the prevalence of FeLV and FIV in Hungary is relatively high. Further examining 47 FIV-positive samples by Sanger sequencing, we obtained 22 partial pol gene sequences. Comparing to sequences with multiple alignment to those found in the GenBank, the 22 Hungarian strains belong to FIV subtype B. GenBank accession numbers are MN401425–MN401446. the overall mean genetic similarity between the analysed strains was 98.2%.