Chronic oral infections of cats and their relationship to persistent oral carriage of feline calici-, immunodeficiency, or leukemia viruses

Abstract Two hundred and twenty-six catsfrom the Veterinary Medical Teaching Hospital (VMTH), a catshelter, and a purebredcattery were tested for chronic feline calicivirus(FCV), feline leukemia virus(FeLV) and feline immunodeficiency virus(FIV) infections. Chronic oral carriage of FCV was present in about one-fifth of the catsin each of the groups. FIV infectionwas not present in the purebredcattery, was moderately prevalent (8%) in the pet population of catsexamined at the VMTH for various complaints and was rampant in the catshelter (21%). Unexpectedly high FeLV infectionrates were found in the hospital catpopulation (28%) and in the purebredcattery (36%), but not in the catshelter (1.4%). FCV and FeLV infectionstended to occur early in life, whereas FIV infectionstended to occur in older animals. From 43 to 100% of the catsin these environments had oral cavity disease ranging from mild gingivitis (23–46%), proliferative gingivitis (18–20%), periodontitis (3–32%) and periodontitis with involvement of extra-gingival tissues (7–27%). Cats infectedsolely with FCV did not have a greater likelihood of oral lesions, or more severe oral disease, than catsthat were totally virus free. This was also true for cats infectedsolely with FeLV, or for catsdually infectedwith FeLV and FCV. Cats infectedsolely with FIV appeared to have a greater prevalence of oral cavity infectionsand their oral cavity disease tended to be more severe than catswithout FIV infection. FIV- infected catsthat were coinfectedwith either FCV, or with FCV and FeLV, had the highest prevalence of oral cavity infectionsand the most severe oral lesions.