EXOone Feline Coronavirus

Description

Feline coronavirus (FCoV) is a positive strand RNA virus belonging to Alphacoronavirus genus from Coronaviridae family that infects cats worldwide.
It presents two different forms; the FECV (feline enteric coronavirus) and the FIPV (feline infectious peritonitis virus).
FCoV is typically shed in feces by healthy cats and transmitted by the fecal-oral route to other cats.  The virus is insignificant until mutations cause the virus to be transformed from FECV to FIPV.
FIP is one of the most serious viral diseases of cats. While there is neither an effective vaccine, nor a curative treatment for FIP, a diagnostic protocol for FCoV would greatly assist in the management and control of the virus. Clinical findings in FIP are non-specific and not helpful in diagnosis. The currently available serological tests have low specificity and sensitivity for detection of active infection. Therefore this qPCR assay might help to an accurate, sensitive and rapid diagnosis of this pathogen.