Prevalence of serum antibody titers against feline panleukopenia virus, feline herpesvirus 1, and feline calicivirus in cats entering a Florida animal shelter

Abstract

Most cats were seronegative for antibodies against FPV, FHV1, and FCV at the time of admission to an animal shelter. These findings supported current guidelines that recommend vaccination of all cats immediately after admission to animal shelters, regardless of the source or physical condition.

Feline Parvovirus Seroprevalence Is High in Domestic Cats from Disease Outbreak and Non-Outbreak Regions in Australia

“…Although it is likely that some cats of unknown vaccination status were in fact vaccinated, there was no significant difference in seroprotection prevalence between this group and unvaccinated cats. Serosurveillance of unvaccinated domestic cats in other countries revealed an FPV seroprevalence ranging from 8% to 96%, although <50% of cats were seropositive in 7 of 10 studies [9,12,13,[21][22][23][24][25][26][27] (Table 4). We used a cut-off HI titre of 1:40 to define seroprotection to allow comparison with the majority of published studies.…”

“…Serum antibody titres to FPV, determined using virus neutralisation (VN) or haemagglutination inhibition (HI) assays or ELISAs (laboratory-based or point-of-care), are used to predict protection from disease [3][4][5][6]. A cut-off ≥1:40 is used widely to define the minimum HI titre that confers serological protection, but a range of cut-offs from 0 to ≥1:80 have been reported [3,4,[7][8][9].…”

“…FPV seroprevalence data among shelter-housed cats or owned cats in Australia have not been reported previously. Factors associated with FPV seropositivity in other regions include previous vaccination [11], increasing age, being owned, and being desexed [8,9,12,13].…”

WSAVA Guidelines for the vaccination of dogs and cats

“…In general, MDA will have waned by 8-12 weeks of age to a level that allows an active immunological response; however, kittens with poor MDA may be vulnerable (and capable of responding to vaccination) at an earlier age, while others may possess MDA at such high titres that they are incapable of responding to vaccination until sometime after 12 weeks of age. The VGG has reviewed recent studies suggesting that up to one third of kittens may fail to respond to a final core vaccine given at 16 weeks of age and that a proportion of kittens may still have blocking MDA at 20 weeks of age (DiGangi et al 2012, Jakel et al 2012. The VGG notes that one of these studies was of a relatively low number of animals, dominated by one breed, within a cattery setting, and suggests that the data may not be fully applicable to the wider feline population.…”

“…Recent US studies have shown that cats entering shelters may be seropositive for vaccine-preventable infectious disease agents. DiGangi et al (2012) reported seropositivity for FPV (60.2%), FHV-1 (89%) and FCV (63.4%) and Fischer et al (2007) reported seropositivity for FPV (33%), FHV-1 (21%), FCV (64%) and rabies virus (3%). Seropositivity to CDV (41.2%) was less than for CPV (84.3%) in dogs entering one US shelter (Litster et al 2012) and in another study 35.5% of dogs were seropositive to both CDV and CPV, 7.7% to CDV only, 31.5% to CPV only and 25.3% to neither virus (Lechner et al 2010).…”