Borna disease virus infection in domestic cats: Evaluation by RNA and antibody detection

Borna disease virus (BDV) infection has been suggested to cause spontaneous neurological disease in cats referred to as staggering disease. However th e evaluation of BDV infection in neurologically asymptomatic cats remained unclear. In the present study, BDV infected, asymptomatic cats in Tokyo wer e surveyed both by the presence of plasma antibodies against BDV-p24 and -p 40 and by RNA detection in peripheral blood mononuclear cells. Seven of 32 domestic cats (21.9%) were serologically or genetically judged to be BDV-in fected. Six cats were positive for anti-BDV antibody and two cats were posi tive for BDV RNA. Within the 2 RNA-positive cats, only one was positive for anti-BDV antibodies. Furthermore, the findings of anti-BDV-p40 and anti-BD V-p24 antibody-positive cats did not completely overlap. These results sugg est that there are neurologically asymptomatic domestic cats infected with BDV present in the Tokyo area.