another FeLV testing question

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Ben Katz - 11 Dec 2003 16:29 GMT

I recently rescued a kitten estimated at 6 months old. She has been spayed,
vaccinated, and tested negative for FIV/FeLV (snap test). My concern is that
if she has been recently exposed, it could be too early for an accurate
test. She has been isolated from my other kitties in a spare bedroom for 16
days since she was tested. Is 16 days too early for a re-test? What is the
incubation period for FeLV?

Thanks,

Ben

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Yngver - 11 Dec 2003 17:47 GMT

>I recently rescued a kitten estimated at 6 months old. She has been spayed,
>vaccinated, and tested negative for FIV/FeLV (snap test). My concern is that
>if she has been recently exposed, it could be too early for an accurate
>test. She has been isolated from my other kitties in a spare bedroom for 16
>days since she was tested. Is 16 days too early for a re-test? What is the
>incubation period for FeLV?

We had the same concern with a stray we took in, even though she also tested
negative on the snap test. The vet said he would take that as a negative and
not be too concerned about exposure to our other cats, but we tend to be
over-cautious. We kept her away from the other cats for a month and retested.
The first vet said that should be long enough, but our regular vet said two
months. We just couldn't keep her in a separate room that long, so we just kept
them apart as long as we could. Since she tested negative on the re-test, we
figured the chances of latent infection were very slim. At the time we were
going to re-test again after three months, but we haven't because she obviously
isn't sick.

All I can advise is that the longer you wait, the more reliable the re-test
will be, but realistically sometimes you just can't keep them separated that
long. If your other cats have been vaccinated, the chance of her having a
latent infection and then infecting them is pretty slim.

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Phil P. - 11 Dec 2003 22:50 GMT

> I recently rescued a kitten estimated at 6 months old. She has been spayed,
> vaccinated, and tested negative for FIV/FeLV (snap test). My concern is that
> if she has been recently exposed, it could be too early for an accurate
> test. She has been isolated from my other kitties in a spare bedroom for 16
> days since she was tested. Is 16 days too early for a re-test? What is the
> incubation period for FeLV?

FeLV infections don't work that way since the virus is transmitted "ready to
use". The ELISA Snap test is about 100 times more sensitive than the IFA
and can detect P27 antigen in circulating cells in the blood within a few
days after transmission.

The ELISA detects early infections, transient infections, and sequestered
infections whereas the IFA usually does not because IFAs depend upon
advanced stages of infection. Neither the ELISA or IFA will detect a
latent infection because P27 is not produced during latency. However,
latency may be an extension of the post-viremia recovery process and not a
stage of the initial infection process itself.

Other than transmission from a bite wound, effective transmission requires
prolonged intimate contact. If I were you, I'd retest the cat with another
ELISA. False ELISA-negatives are rare. In the unlikey event the ELISA is
positve, retest with the IFA.

FeLV ELISA positives are not all that reliable because a positive result
indicates cirulating antigen but *not* necessairly a productive,
marrow-origin infection.

Good luck.

Phil.

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Cat Protector - 12 Dec 2003 00:53 GMT

Are your other cats FELV?

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> I recently rescued a kitten estimated at 6 months old. She has been spayed,
> vaccinated, and tested negative for FIV/FeLV (snap test). My concern is that
[quoted text clipped - 6 lines]
>
> Ben

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