engleski

PRELIMINARY EVALUATION OF IDEXX COMBO SNAP® TEST FOR USAGE ON POSTMORTAL SAMPLES

Retrovirus infections caused by feline leukemia virus (FeLV) and feline immunodeficiency virus (FIV) are common in domestic cats in Croatia. The IDEXX SNAP Combo FeLV Antigen/FIV Antibody Test® is used in routine diagnostics from whole blood, serum or plasma (clinical samples), but not from cats presented for necropsy. We therefore performed a study to investigate usefulness the SNAP test on postmortally obtained blood and body fluids. Samples were collected from two group of cats: (A) cats with known status of FeLV/FIV-N=12 ; (B) cats without known history of FeLV/FIV testing-N=19. In group A results from live cats were compared to test results from postmortally collected blood. In group B FeLV/FIV status was determined on postmortal results of blood samples and compared to results obtained from body fluids including lung juice, ascites, thoracic or pericardial effusion. In group A, tests performed during life and after death gave the same result in 67% (8/12) of animals. In four cats from same group results didn’t match: i) two cats showed FIV infection on clinical samples and FeLV/FIV coinfection on postmortal samples ; ii) single cat was positive for FeLV and FIV during life, while it was only positive for FeLV after death ; iii) clinical sample from a cat was negative, while postmortal blood was positive for FeLV. In group B, results from postmortal blood matched with body fluids in 94% (16/17) of tested cats. Lung juice from one cat was negative, while postmortal blood showed infection with FeLV. This study presents preliminary results which indicate that IDEXX SNAP Combo test could be useful in postmortal diagnostics of FeLV/FIV status. However, a systematic research which includes live and dead positive and negative cats (with determined viral status by serologic and molecular methods) should be performed for definite conclusion on the accuracy of this SNAP test on postmortal samples.

feline immunodeficiency virus (FIV) ; feline leukemia virus (FeLV) ; IDEXX Combo SNAP test ; postmortal evaluation ; cat

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