Feline panleucopenia
Synonyms
Definition
Etiology
Susceptibility
- Cats, Cheetahs, leopard, tiger
Transmission
- Virus is shed in secretion and excretion of affected animal
- Virus is shed in urine and feces upto 6weeks after recovery
- Direct contact
- Fomites
Pathogenesis
- Feline panleucopenia virus (FPV) infects and destroys actively dividing cells in bone marrow, lymphoid tissues, intestinal epithelium and—in very young animals—cerebellum and retina.
- In pregnant queens, the virus may spread transplacentally to cause embryonic resorption, fetal mummification, abortion, or stillbirth.
- Infection of kittens in the perinatal period may destroy the germinal epithelium of the cerebellum, leading to cerebellar hypoplasia, incoordination, and tremor.
- FPV induced cerebellar ataxia has become a relatively rare due to sufficient antibodies passed from the queens to their kittens to protect them during the period of susceptibility.
Clinical signs
- Severe panleucopenia (abnormal decrease in all type of leucocytes)
- Fever-104˚-105˚f - Diphasic– falls after 24 hours and rises about 48 hours later
- Enteritis
- Dehydration
- Severe leucopenia
- Death after second peak of temperature
Gross lesions
- Dehydration
- Emaciation
- Mucopurulent exudate on nasal and lacrimal mucosa
- Haemorrage in intestine
- Enlarged and oedematous mesenteric lymphnodes
- Bone marrow of long bones are yellowish or white and semi fluid
Microscopic lesions
Most commonly seen in intestine
- Superficial epithelium of intestine undergoes desquamation
- Remaining epithelium undergoes proliferation
- Crypts are dilated with mucus and lined with hyperplastic epithelial cells
- Granular eosinophilic intranuclear inclusion bodies, are seen in lining epithelial cells
- Necrosis of lymphocytes in follicular and paracortical regions of lymphnode, Malphigian corpuscles of spleen, cortex of thymus and Peyer’s patches
- Intranuclear inclusions may be seen in histiocytes
- Bone marrow – depletion of stem cell population
Diagnosis
- Demonstration of intranuclear inclusion bodies in epithelial cells of small intestine
- Inclusion bodies are best demonstrated in tissues fixed in acidic fixatives such as Zenker’s or Bouin’s
- ELISA, serum neutralization, Haemagglutination inhibition
Panleuopaenia ad cerebellar hypoplasia
- Feline panleucopaenia produce cerebellar hypoplasia in kittens
- Intranuclear inclusion bodies are seen in cerebellum
|
Last modified: Monday, 19 March 2012, 5:59 AM