Prevalence of and factors associated with feline leukemia virus (FeLV) and feline immunodeficiency virus (FIV) in cats of the state of Santa Catarina, Brazil

Abstract

A cross-sectional study was conducted in 274 cats for determination of FeLV antigenemia and FIV seropositivity and factors associated with those infections in cats presented at the Veterinary Hospital of the Santa Catarina State University - UDESC (Brazil). Apparent prevalence for sick cats at the hospital population was 28.41% (95%CI 21.88-34.94%) for FeLV, 7.65% (95%CI 3.71-11.50%) for FIV and 2.18% (95%CI 0.56-5.47%) for both viruses. For healthy cats, the apparent prevalence was 9.89% (95%CI 3.75-16.02%) for FeLV, 2.20% (95%CI 0.34-7.75%) for FIV by immunoassay (ELISA). Average age for FeLV- and FIV-positive individuals was 38.32 and 64.25 months, respectively. Behavior such as aggressiveness and sex (male) were both associated with increased odds of result positivity test for FeLV and FIV; older animals were also associated with FIV test results. A very small proportion of the animals were vaccinated against FeLV and none against FIV. Most of the animals were adopted from shelters or rescued from streets, living with multiple cats that had access to outdoors. The high prevalence of FeLV suggests a need for better control strategies against this disease.

Keywords: Diagnosis; Epidemiology; Risk factor; South America; Viral disease.