🧬 The Felid Wiki — 3,000 research summaries

This comprehensive review synthesized four and a half decades of research on feline infectious peritonitis, covering the biology of feline coronavirus, the internal-mutation hypothesis by which a beni…

Pedersen NC · Journal of Feline Medicine and Surgery · 2009

This pioneering work identified virus-like particles associated with naturally occurring lymphosarcoma in cats, providing early evidence that a transmissible retrovirus underlies the disease now known…

Jarrett WFH, Crawford EM, Martin WB, Davie F · Nature · 1964

This pivotal field trial treated cats with naturally occurring feline infectious peritonitis (FIP), long considered almost uniformly fatal, using the nucleoside analog GS-441524, a parent compound rel…

Pedersen NC, Perron M, Bannasch M, Montgomery E, Murakami E, Liepnieks M, Liu H · Journal of Feline Medicine and Surgery · 2019

This study evaluated the antiviral protease inhibitor GC376 in cats with naturally acquired FIP, targeting the coronavirus 3C-like protease essential for viral replication. Treated cats showed clinica…

Pedersen NC, Kim Y, Liu H, Galasiti Kankanamalage AC, Eckstrand C, Groutas WC, Bannasch M, Meadows JM, Chang KO · Journal of Feline Medicine and Surgery · 2018

This study developed and validated the Feline Grimace Scale, a tool that assesses acute pain in cats by scoring facial action units such as ear position, orbital tightening, muzzle tension, whisker ch…

Evangelista MC, Watanabe R, Leung VSY, Monteiro BP, O'Toole E, Pang DSJ, Steagall PV · Scientific Reports · 2019

This landmark study isolated a novel lentivirus from a California cattery where cats showed chronic, AIDS-like immunodeficiency with opportunistic infections and wasting. The team recovered a T-lympho…

Pedersen NC, Ho EW, Brown ML, Yamamoto JK · Science · 1987

This pivotal study linked dilated cardiomyopathy, then a common and frequently fatal heart disease in cats, to taurine deficiency, showing that affected cats had low plasma taurine and that taurine su…

Pion PD, Kittleson MD, Rogers QR, Morris JG · Science · 1987

Fibroblast growth factor 23 (FGF23), a hormone regulating phosphate, rises early in feline CKD as the kidneys struggle to excrete phosphorus, and elevated levels have been associated with disease prog…

Cats can be simultaneously infected with FIV and feline leukemia virus, and coinfection tends to accelerate immune decline and worsen prognosis compared with either virus alone. The two retroviruses d…

Because FIV causes a naturally occurring, lifelong immunodeficiency in an outbred host, it became a prized small-animal model for lentiviral pathogenesis, antiretroviral testing, and vaccine concepts.…

FIV diagnosis traditionally relies on detecting antibodies, since infection is lifelong and antibody usually signals true infection in adult cats. Point-of-care ELISA tests give rapid screening, with…

FIV shares the genomic architecture of primate lentiviruses, encoding gag, pol, and env structural and enzymatic genes alongside accessory genes that regulate replication and immune evasion. Researche…

FIV strains cluster into several genetic subtypes (clades) distributed unevenly across continents, reflecting local transmission histories among free-roaming and owned cat populations. Surveys consist…

FIV is transmitted predominantly through deep bite wounds delivered during territorial fighting, which explains its concentration in intact outdoor male cats. Unlike feline leukemia virus, casual cont…

Developing an FIV vaccine proved difficult because lentiviruses mutate rapidly and protective immunity is hard to elicit. A commercial inactivated dual-subtype whole-virus vaccine was eventually marke…

FIV, like HIV, can invade the central nervous system, and infected cats sometimes develop behavioral changes, altered sleep, cognitive and motor deficits, and electrophysiologic abnormalities. The vir…

Lentiviruses related to domestic-cat FIV circulate widely in wild felid species including lions, pumas, leopards, and others, often at high seroprevalence yet apparently with limited disease in their…

Because FeLV spreads through prolonged close contact such as shared bowls, mutual grooming, and bites, managing it in shelters and multi-cat households requires careful testing, isolation, and housing…

FeLV subgroups enter cells using different host membrane receptors, and identifying these receptors clarified why the subgroups cause different diseases. Subgroup A uses a thiamine transporter, subgro…

Feline leukemia virus exists as distinct subgroups defined by receptor usage and biological behavior. Subgroup A is the transmissible form present in all infections; subgroups B, C, and T arise within…

FeLV diagnosis centers on detecting viral p27 antigen. Point-of-care ELISA tests detect soluble antigen in blood and are highly sensitive for screening, while immunofluorescent antibody (IFA) testing…

FeLV is a major cause of hematopoietic neoplasia in cats, classically producing lymphoma and leukemias through insertional mutagenesis and activation of cellular oncogenes. Historically, FeLV-positive…

Beyond cancer, FeLV frequently causes severe nonregenerative anemia and broader bone marrow suppression, making hematologic disease a leading cause of death in infected cats. The subgroup C variant sp…

FeLV impairs immune function, leaving cats vulnerable to a wide range of secondary bacterial, viral, fungal, and protozoal infections that frequently determine clinical course and survival. The subgro…

The International Renal Interest Society (IRIS) staging system standardized how feline chronic kidney disease (CKD) is classified, using blood creatinine, and later SDMA, to define stages, with substa…

Symmetric dimethylarginine (SDMA) emerged as a blood biomarker of kidney function that rises earlier in the course of feline CKD than creatinine and is less influenced by muscle mass, an advantage in…

Sodium-glucose cotransporter-2 (SGLT2) inhibitors, oral drugs that lower blood glucose by promoting urinary glucose excretion, gained approval for treating feline diabetes, offering the first effectiv…

Concerns about injection-site sarcomas and inflammation spurred development of non-adjuvanted recombinant feline vaccines, such as canarypox-vectored products, intended to provoke less local inflammat…

As feline CKD advances, reduced renal production of erythropoietin, along with iron dysregulation, inflammation, and shortened red cell survival, causes nonregenerative anemia that worsens weakness an…

A monoclonal antibody targeting nerve growth factor, a key mediator of chronic pain, was developed as a long-acting injectable treatment for the pain of feline osteoarthritis, offering a novel mechani…