Research overview: environmental persistence and spillover of feline parvovirus

Feline panleukopenia virus is exceptionally hardy, surviving in the environment for long periods, which shapes its epidemiology and spillover potential to wild felids. This overview surveys the virus’s resistance to disinfection and environmental degradation, the implications for transmission through contaminated sites, and the risk this poses to naive wild and captive cat populations. It examines the severe, often fatal disease the virus causes, particularly in young animals, the role of domestic and feral cats as sources, and control through vaccination and rigorous hygiene. The synthesis connects viral durability to disease management. It aims to help readers understand why a virus’s stability outside the host is itself an epidemiological force, allowing parvovirus to persist in the environment and seed outbreaks long after an infected animal has gone.