Epizootological and clinical study of feline panleucopenia. (Infectious gastroenteritis of the cat)
Horváth, Z.; Papp, L.; Bartha, A.
Acta Veterinaria Academiae Scientiarum Hungaricae 24(1): 7-17
1974
ISSN/ISBN: 0001-7205 PMID: 4422990 Document Number: 78896
Of 7944 cats treated at Budapest University Small Animal Clinic from 1962 to 1971, 1770 (22.3%) had viral panleucopenia (VP). Out-breaks were common in early spring and in autumn. Frequency was highest (38.8%) among cats 7-12 months old. The disease was hyperacute, acute or chronic. The acute form was the most frequent, characterized by listlessness, high fever (40.4-42.0 deg C), fits of vomiting, severe exsiccosis and leucopenia (leucocyte counts may be as low as 500-1000/ mu l). Some cases had an archlike, 3.4 mm wide, necrotic zone in the lingual mucosa (panleucopenic marginal ulcer of the tongue). Chronic VP developed from the acute form and was characterized by a persistent intestinal catarrh, anaemia and cachexia. The main therapeutic measures were slow i/v infusion of blood from older or immunized cats, rehydration by the i/v and/or s/c route, and oral (neomycin) and i/m (chloramphenicol) antibiotic treatment for the prevention of secondary bacterial infections. The viral agent was isolated from various organs of 6 out of 47 affected cats in secondary cat renal epithelial cell culture. The experimental infections and virus isolations unequivocally proved that the conditions known as infectious feline laryngoenteritis and VP represent one and the same disease. A formol-treated experimental vaccine prepared from VP virus propagated in secondary cat epithelial cell culture proved equivalent to a commercial vaccine.