Design of primers in the molecular detection of Feline Panleukopenia Virus

Feline Panleukopenia is a disease characterized by a reduction in the number of circulating leukocytes and enteritis with degeneration of the intestinal villi. The etiologic agent, called Feline Panleukopenia virus (FPV), belongs to the Parvoviridae family, is highly contagious and has high mortality and morbidity.

Although vaccination of healthy cats is the most effective way to prevent the disease, once the symptoms appear, the treatment is supportive, presenting high mortality in the first days of the disease.

FPV positive cats should be hospitalized and isolated for at least 2 weeks to avoid viral transmission. Early detection is usually done with the enzyme-linked immunoadsorption assay (ELISA) test that detects viral antigens in stool samples.

As a complementary diagnostic method, in this work it was proposed to implement the Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) aimed at the diagnosis of FPV initially in positive samples from two feline vaccines and one canine vaccine. As an approximation to real samples, the commercial vaccines were mixed with feces and blood from a healthy cat.

The results showed that the In Silico design was successful strategy based on the VP2 gene sequences of FPV available in GenBank® in conjunction with the sharp visualization of positive controls of the expected size and without amplification. nonspecific or negative controls. The fragments obtained has a nucleotide identity percentage greater than 97% with respect to the information available in Genbank® and corroborates the detection of a VP2 fragment.

Thus, the future option of applying the same protocol in a diagnostic way is opened, using samples obtained from suspected patients who are infected with FPV.