First Molecular Characterization of Feline Immunodeficiency Virus in Domestic Cats from Mainland China

Abstract

The feline immunodeficiency virus (FIV) is a retrovirus of the Lentivirus genus that was initially isolated from a colony of domestic cats in California in 1986 and has now been recognized as a common feline pathogen worldwide. To date, there is only one recent serology-based report on FIV in mainland China which was published in 2016. We designed this study to investigate the molecular prevalence and diversity of feline immunodeficiency virus (FIV) in domestic cats from mainland China. We studied the prevalence of FIV in whole blood samples of 615 domestic cats in five cities (Beijing, Guangzhou, Nanjing, Shanghai and Yangzhou) of mainland China and examined them using FRET-PCR (Fluorescence Resonance Energy Transfer-Polymerase Chain Reaction) and regular PCRs for the gag and env genes. Overall, 1.3% (8/615) of the cats were positive for provirus DNA with nucleotide analysis using PCRs for the gag and env sequences showing the cats were infected with FIV subtype A. This is the first molecular characterization of FIV in mainland China and the first description of subtype A in continental Asia.

Detection and molecular characterisation of feline viruses from swab samples

“…Subtype D has Zealand. Recombinant sequences were also found among the subtypes, which occurred between A-B, B-D, and A-C (Samman et al, 2011;Perhari c et al, 2016;Zhang et al, 2017;Martins et al, 2018).…”

Molecular epidemiology of type I and II feline coronavirus from cats with suspected feline infectious peritonitis in China between 2019 and 2021

“…The prevalence rate of FIV has been reported to be approximately 10% in Hungary, Malaysia, and Ireland [15][16][17]. However, the positive rate of FIV in China is only 1.3-1.5% [18,19]. The reason for this difference is unclear.…”

The First Feline Immunodeficiency Virus in Siberian Tigers (Panthera Tigris Altaica) from China

“…Thus, the only two FIV sequences from tigers in the world are a 450 bp gag gene fragment (Pti-104 strain) [7] and a 505 bp pol gene fragment (FIVfca 13D strain; GenBank accession number EF667041). Currently, there are only four studies on FIV in China, all of which are serological or molecular epidemiological investigations of domestic cats [8][9][10][11].…”