This week: parvovirus infection
There was disturbing news this week from a little-known northern province of Thailand, Phichit. It's not the usual holiday destination for Hong Kong tourists, so most of us haven't heard of it. It was reported a group of cats had been found dead after suffering such symptoms as vomiting, lethargy, diarrhoea and upper airway infection. Laboratory tests are being conducted by the local authorities to determine the cause of death. Feline distemper is suspected by the disease control department of the Ministry of Public Health.
It was in the same province in 2006 that two human patients contracted flu-like symptoms after coming into contact with dead chickens. The area was declared a bird-flu red zone and citizens were warned by authorities not to eat chickens that died. It was feared poor immigrants would eat dead chickens and risk contracting bird flu. There is no evidence of any link between bird flu and the dead cats.
News of the dead cats has locals, mindful of the bird-flu scare, on high alert and wrongly fearful of contracting bird flu from the dead cats. Cat owners have been abandoning their cats and sometimes dogs at Buddhist temples, where monks are obliged to help the newly arrived homeless animals. The monks have issued a plea to people to stop dumping their cats at temples, where they make a nuisance of themselves by fighting and defecating.
Given the symptoms the cats suffered before their deaths, the disease is unlikely to be bird flu. Gastrointestinal symptoms are not usually involved in bird flu, and I agree with the local authority's suspicion of feline distemper.
So what is feline distemper and how does it affect us in faraway Hong Kong? Among cat owners in Hong Kong, feline distemper is more commonly known as feline panleukopenia. It is caused by a parvovirus. The virus is not able to cross between different species, so it can't be transmitted to humans or dogs. Dogs have their own version of parvovirus that isn't related to the cat version.
The virus in cats infects the rapidly dividing cells of the body, such as those of the intestinal lining. It causes ulcers in the intestinal lining which lead to diarrhoea and vomiting. If severe enough, the animal can die from dehydration or a secondary infection from bacteria entering the blood stream through a wound in the intestinal lining.