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Feline foamy virus is highly prevalent in free-ranging Puma concolor from Colorado, Florida and southern California

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posted on 2023-05-21, 06:59 authored by Kechejian, SR, Dannemiller, N, Kraberger, S, Ledesma-Feliciano, C, Malmberg, J, Roelke-Parker, M, Cunningham, M, McBride, R, Riley, SPD, Vickers, WT, Logan, K, Alldredge, M, Crooks, K, Lochelt, M, Scott CarverScott Carver, VandeWoude, S
Feline foamy virus (FFV) is a retrovirus that has been detected in multiple feline species, including domestic cats (Felis catus) and pumas (Puma concolor). FFV results in persistent infection but is generally thought to be apathogenic. Sero-prevalence in domestic cat populations has been documented in several countries, but the extent of viral infections in nondomestic felids has not been reported. In this study, we screened sera from 348 individual pumas from Colorado, Southern California and Florida for FFV exposure by assessing sero-reactivity using an FFV anti-Gag ELISA. We documented a sero-prevalence of 78.6% across all sampled subpopulations, representing 69.1% in Southern California, 77.3% in Colorado, and 83.5% in Florida. Age was a significant risk factor for FFV infection when analyzing the combined populations. This high prevalence in geographically distinct populations reveals widespread exposure of puma to FFV and suggests efficient shedding and transmission in wild populations.

Funding

National Science Foundation

History

Publication title

Viruses

Volume

11

Issue

4

Pagination

359

ISSN

1999-4915

Department/School

School of Natural Sciences

Publisher

MDPI AG

Place of publication

Switzerland

Rights statement

Copyright: © 2019 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).

Repository Status

  • Open

Socio-economic Objectives

Control of pests, diseases and exotic species in terrestrial environments

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