Fecal shedding of feline coronavirus in adult cats and kittens in an Abyssinian cattery

Objective-To determine patterns of fecal shedding of feline coronavirus (FC V) by cats, age at which kittens first began to shed FCV in their feces, an d whether there was any relationship between fecal shedding of FCV and seru m antibody titers in adult cats or kittens. Design-Prospective observational study. Animals-15 adult cats and 18 kittens from a single cattery. Procedure-Blood and fecal samples were collected from adult cats every othe r month for 13 months. Serum FCV antibody liters were measured by use of an indirect immunofluorescence assay. A reverse-transcriptase, nested polymer ase chain reaction assay was used to detect FCV in feces. Blood and fecal s amples were collected from kittens at approximately 2-week intervals from 3 weeks to 15 weeks of age. Results-Adult cats shed FCV intermittently. All adult cats shed virus in th eir feces at least once during the year, and 4 of 15 shed virus > 75% of th e time. Serum antibody titer was not significantly associated with shedding of FCV. For the kittens, median age at the time FCV was first detected in feces was 67 days (range, 33 to 78 days). All except 1 of the kittens was f ound to be shedding virus in their feces before or at the time of seroconve rsion. Conclusions and Clinical Relevance-Results suggest that serum FCV antibody titers are not a good indicator of shedding of FCV in the feces. Kittens ma y shed FCV in their feces before they seroconvert, and all kittens in a cat tery in which FCV infection is endemic may be infected before 12 weeks of a ge.