Ninety-five effusion samples were collected from cats with suspected feline infectious peritonitis in northern Taiwan; these samples showed a 47.4% (45/95) feline coronavirus (FCoV) positivity rate on immunofluorescence staining and RT-PCR. Young cats (≤24 months old) were found to have a significantly higher risk than cats >24 months old (odds ratio (OR) = 6.19, 95% confidence interval (CI) 2.54-16.00). No significant association was found between the positive rates and sex or breed. The A/G ratio in positive cases was significantly lower than the A/G ratio in negative cases. Genotyping and sequencing of the positive cases revealed 71.9% single infection with type I strains and 28.1% coinfection with types I and II. No single infections with type II strains were noted. The type I sequences had high diversity, while the type II sequences had high internal sequence identity and were more similar to CoVs from other species, such as dogs, pigs, and various small mammals. This study demonstrates the latest analysis of FCoV infection cases in northern Taiwan.
Keywords: feline coronavirus; feline infectious peritonitis; genotype; immunofluorescence staining; phylogenetic analysis.