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. 2025 Mar 20;15(1):9650.
doi: 10.1038/s41598-025-94123-w.

Discovery of a human parvovirus B19 analog (Erythroparvovirus) in cats

Gianvito Lanave  1 , Francesco Pellegrini  2 , Georgia Diakoudi  2 , Cristiana Catella  2 , Alessandra Cavalli  2 , Paolo Capozza  2 , Gabriella Elia  2 , Barbara Di Martino  3 , Eric Zini  4   5   6 , Giuseppe Pollicino  4 , Andrea Zatelli  2 , Krisztián Bányai  7   8 , Antonio Lavazza  9 , Nicola Decaro  2 , Michele Camero  2 , Vito Martella  2   7
Affiliations

Discovery of a human parvovirus B19 analog (Erythroparvovirus) in cats

Gianvito Lanave et al. Sci Rep. .

Abstract

Two feral cats (from the same colony) were presented to the veterinary clinic for weakness, weight loss, and anorexia. The cats were part of a study on feline hepatotropic viruses (collection A, 43 animals). On metaviromic investigation, parvoviral reads were identified in the sera of the two cats. The feline parvovirus genome was 5.3 kb long with an organization similar to other members of the Erythroparvovirus genus. In the ORF1 (nonstructural proteins) and ORF2 (VP1/VP2 precursor) the feline virus displayed 43.1% and 49.1% nucleotide identity to human parvovirus B19, and 48.9% and 56.6% to chipmunk parvovirus. Sequence identity to canine/feline protoparvovirus (Protoparvovirus carnivoran 1) was as low as 36.5% % and 29.2% in the ORF1 and ORF2, respectively. Using a quantitative PCR assay, the virus was also identified in an additional ten cats (prevalence 27.6%, 12/43) from collection A and in 15/1150 (1.3%) of archival sera (collection B), revealing a higher infection rate in cats with altered hepatic markers, suggestive of hepatic distress. The findings of our study extend the list of known parvoviruses in the feline host.

Keywords: Cat; Erythroparvovirus; Hepatitis; Sera.

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Conflict of interest statement

Declarations. Competing interests: The authors declare no competing interests. Ethics statement: All applicable international, national and institutional guidelines for the care and use of animals were followed. The study is reported in accordance with ARRIVE guidelines ( https://arriveguidelines.org ). The study was approved by the Ethics Committee of the Department of Veterinary Medicine, University of Bari (Authorization 23/2018).

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Genome structure of human parvovirus B19 (panel A) and feline erythroparvovirus (panel B). Black arrow indicates p6 promoter. Black circles indicate the polyadenylation sites. Intrinsically disordered (ID) and phospholipase A2 regions, in the unique region (UR) of the VP1 of human parvovirus B19 and feline erythroparvovirus are indicated.
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Maximum likelihood phylogenetic trees of the feline erythroparvovirus identified in this study and reference strains of Erythroparvovirus genus recovered in the GenBank database. Complete NS (2041 nt) (panel A) and VP (1795 nt) (panel B) sequence-based phylogenetic trees were reconstructed using Tamura-Nei model (four parameters) with a gamma distribution. A total of 1,000 bootstrap replicates were used to estimate the robustness of the individual nodes on the phylogenetic tree. Bootstrap values greater than 75% were indicated. Black arrows indicate the feline erythroparvovirus strain detected in this study. The numbers of nucleotide substitutions are indicated by the scale bar. FeEPV: feline erythroparvovirus, BoPV-3: bovine parvovirus 3, ChPV: chipmunk parvovirus, HuPV B19: human parvovirus B19, PtMaPV: pig-tailed macaque parvovirus, RhMaPV: rhesus macaque parvovirus, SePV: seal parvovirus, SiPV: simian parvovirus.
Fig. 3
Fig. 3
Distribution of the viral load of feline erythroparvovirus positive samples of the collection A and collection B.
Fig. 4
Fig. 4
Electron microscopy observation of parvovirus-like particles from cat serum samples. Negative staining (NaPT, 7.2 pH) microphotograph of some dispersed 25–27 nm rounded particles. Bar = 500 nm.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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