Clinical Laboratory, Department of Clinical Diagnostics and Services, Vetsuisse Faculty, University of Zurich, 8057 Zurich, Switzerland
Margaret J. Hosie
MRC—University of Glasgow Centre for Virus Research, Glasgow G61 1QH, UK
Katrin Hartmann
Clinic of Small Animal Medicine, Centre for Clinical Veterinary Medicine, Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich, 80539 Munich, Germany
Herman Egberink
Department of Biomolecular Health Sciences, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, University of Utrecht, 3584 CL Utrecht, The Netherlands
Uwe Truyen
Institute of Animal Hygiene and Veterinary Public Health, University of Leipzig, 04103 Leipzig, Germany
Séverine Tasker
Bristol Veterinary School, University of Bristol, Bristol BS40 5DU, UK
Sándor Belák
Department of Biomedical Sciences and Veterinary Public Health (BVF), Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU), P.O. Box 7036, 750 07 Uppsala, Sweden
Corine Boucraut-Baralon
Scanelis Laboratory, 31770 Colomiers, France
Tadeusz Frymus
Department of Small Animal Diseases with Clinic, Institute of Veterinary Medicine, Warsaw University of Life Sciences—SGGW, 02-787 Warsaw, Poland
Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Università degli Studi di Teramo, 64100 Teramo, Italy
Maria Grazia Pennisi
Dipartimento di Scienze Veterinarie, Università di Messina, 98168 Messina, Italy
Diane D. Addie
Veterinary Diagnostic Services, School of Veterinary Medicine, College of Medical, Veterinary and Life Sciences, University of Glasgow, Glasgow G61 1QH, UK
Hans Lutz
Clinical Laboratory, Department of Clinical Diagnostics and Services, Vetsuisse Faculty, University of Zurich, 8057 Zurich, Switzerland
Etienne Thiry
Veterinary Virology and Animal Viral Diseases, Department of Infectious and Parasitic Diseases, Fundamental and Applied Research for Animals & Health Research Centre, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Liège University, B-4000 Liège, Belgium
Alan D. Radford
Institute of Infection, Veterinary and Ecological Sciences, University of Liverpool, Leahurst Campus, Chester High Road, Neston CH64 7TE, UK
Karin Möstl
Institute of Virology, Department for Pathobiology, University of Veterinary Medicine, 1210 Vienna, Austria
Feline calicivirus (FCV) is a common pathogen in domestic cats that is highly contagious, resistant to many disinfectants and demonstrates a high genetic variability. FCV infection can lead to serious or even fatal diseases. In this review, the European Advisory Board on Cat Diseases (ABCD), a scientifically independent board of experts in feline medicine from 11 European countries, presents the current knowledge of FCV infection and fills gaps with expert opinions. FCV infections are particularly problematic in multicat environments. FCV-infected cats often show painful erosions in the mouth and mild upper respiratory disease and, particularly in kittens, even fatal pneumonia. However, infection can be associated with chronic gingivostomatitis. Rarely, highly virulent FCV variants can induce severe systemic disease with epizootic spread and high mortality. FCV can best be detected by reverse-transcriptase PCR. However, a negative result does not rule out FCV infection and healthy cats can test positive. All cats should be vaccinated against FCV (core vaccine); however, vaccination protects cats from disease but not from infection. Considering the high variability of FCV, changing to different vaccine strain(s) may be of benefit if disease occurs in fully vaccinated cats. Infection-induced immunity is not life-long and does not protect against all strains; therefore, vaccination of cats that have recovered from caliciviral disease is recommended.
