Molecular epidemiology and genome analysis of feline morbillivirus in household and shelter cats in Thailand.

BACKGROUND: Feline morbillivirus (FeMV) has been discovered in domestic cats associated with tubulointerstitial nephritis, but FeMV is also detected in healthy cats. This research aimed to identify and characterize the FeMV strains detected in a Thai cat population. RESULTS: Two-hundred and ninety-two samples (131 urine and 161 blood) derived from 261 cats (61 sheltered and 200 household cats) were included for investigating the FeMV prevalence using real-time reverse transcription PCR. The overall prevalence of FeMV detection was 11.9% (31/261) among both samples, which accounted for 14.5% (19/131) and 7.5% (12/161) of the urine and blood samples, respectively. Among the FeMV-PCR positive cats, the FeMV-detected prevalence was insignificantly associated with healthy cats (58.1%; 18/31) or urologic cats (41.9%; 13/31). Full-length genome analysis of these FeMV-Thai strains revealed that their genomes clustered together in the FeMV-1A clade with up to 98.5% nucleotide identity. Selective pressure analysis showed that overall FeMV-1 has undergone negative selection, while positive selection sites were more frequently observed in the phosphoprotein gene. CONCLUSIONS: The detected FeMV infections in the Thai cat population were not correlated with urologic disorders, although the virus was more detectable in urine samples. The genetic patterns among the FeMV-1 Thai strains were more consistent. A large-scale study of FeMV in Thai cat samples is needed for further elucidation.

Quantitative PCR detection of feline morbillivirus in cat urine samples.

Feline morbillivirus (FmoPV) is a new virus species and its detection is important, since correlation has been reported between FmoPV virus infection and tubulointerstitial nephritis in cats. Here, we report a real-time reverse transcription (RT)-PCR system that can detect the FmoPV L-gene sequence with more than 10-time higher sensitivity than a conventional PCR system, resulting in detection of less than 10 copies of the template DNA. The total FmoPV positive rate of urine samples from veterinary clinics and hospitals in Japan was 15.1% (25/166) using this system. This study demonstrates usefulness of the real-time RT-PCR system for detection of FmoPV for cat urine samples.