Determination of Feline calicivirus in cats in Ahvaz district, Southwest of Iran by RT-PCR (a preliminary study)

Feline calicivirus (FCV) is a highly infectious respiratory pathogen of domestic cats with a widespread distribution. In order to assess how FCV circulates in feral and household cats, we have carried out the first study on the FCV detection in Ahvaz district from December 2008 to November 2009. Oropharyngeal, nasal and ocular swabs of one hundred cats (70 feral and 30 household) were evaluated by reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) procedure for the detection of FCV. The influence of sex, age, social status and clinical signs on the probability of infection was analyzed using statistical Fisher’s exact test. Overall, feline calicivirus was detected in 4/100 (4%) of sampled cats; 13.3% of the household cats were FCV positive compared to 0% of feral cats. According to several factors including younger cats (under 6 months of age), multiple cat household and clinical findings, differences were significant (p0.05). To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report indicating the presence of FCV in cats in Iran. Due to low prevalence of FCV infection and the fact that feral cats live solitarily, it was concluded that this viral infection don’t spread readily within feral populations. However special measures are recommended to avoid infection of susceptible and unvaccinated cats.