Prevalences of Feline Coronavirus (FCoV), Feline Leukaemia Virus (FeLV), Feline Immunodeficiency Virus (FIV) and Feline Parvovirus (FPV) among domestic cats in Ankara, Turkey

Feline Coronavirus (FCoV), Feline Leukaemia Virus (FeLV), Feline Immunodeficiency Virus (FIV) and Feline Parvovirus (FPV) cause important viral infections in domestic and wild cats. In this study, these viruses were assessed using PCR protocols from whole blood samples from 200 domestic cats living in Ankara with clinical chronic gastrointestinal, urinary tract and respiratory symptoms (n = 138) or apparently healthy (n = 62). A total of 146 cats (73.0%) were positive for at least one of these viruses, and 41.8% of them were co-infected, mainly by FPV, FeLV and/or FIV. The prevalences were 45.5%, 39.0%, 20.5% and 9.5% for FCoV, FPV, FeLV and FIV, respectively. Age, lifestyle and health status were found significantly associated with an increased risk of virus positivity. These results allow a direct determination of virus infection instead of seroprevalences and emphasize the frequency of virus poly-infections.