Feline Pan Leukopenia Molecular Detection and Viral Phylogeny in Egypt

Feline panleukopenia virus (FPV) causes severe disease in cats, as well as in a variety of wild carnivores including many endangered animals. Regular appearance of the virus increases the importance of evaluating the percentage of identity in relation to vaccine commercially used, detecting sequence changes related to virus virulence or tropism. In this study Fifty-seven fecal samples were collected from suspected cases of cats. 19 fecal samples were positive using Rapid FLV Ag test kits kit (VDRG FLV/FIV Ab rapid kit). Fifty-seven blood samples of the same animals were subjected for hematological examination to investigate the severity of leukopenia. Thirteen out of nineteen samples were positive with a polymerase chain reaction assay (PCR) targeting VP2 gene. Three positive fecal samples in animal showing sever and moderate leukopenia were successfully sequenced Partially. Sequence analysis results showed no variation in their sequence across all isolates when compared to the published FPV genome, which could imply that FPV appears to be in genomic stasis as compared to other Parvoviruses. Genomic stasis appears among the three Egyptian samples in this study under the GenBank accession number OP594200, OP574201, and OP574202, in addition to the high similarity of the isolates the vaccine strains of EU498680 and EU498681.No amino acid substitution was detected.