Ocorrência de micoplasmas hemotrópicos e do vírus da leucemia felina em gatos domésticos- Estudo retrospectivo

Abstract

Brazil ranks second in a ranking of countries in terms of dog and cat population. In 2019, 19.3% of brazilian houses had at least one feline. In this scenario, it is relevant to know the epidemiology of infectious diseases that affect felines, as well as co-infections between infectious agents. The present study evaluates the occurrence of infection by Hemotropic Mycoplasmas and Feline Leukemia Virus in domestic cats by the results of qPCR analyses carried out during the period from February 2021 to February 2023 made available by the Veterinary Etiological Research Laboratory of the Institute of Veterinary Medicine of the Federal University of Uberlândia. Based on the qPCR result of each animal, a table was made in which the animal's age, sex and the presence of infection or co-infection were recorded according to the panel of analyses performed. It was observed that 27.9 % (12/43) of the cats were positive only for Hemotropic Mycoplasmas, 11.6 % (5/43) were infected only by FeLV and 9% (4/43) had co-infection between FeLV and Mycoplasmas. In addition, a higher frequency of males positive for Hemotropic Mycoplasma and/or FeLV was found in comparison to females. Regarding the age group, felines that fit into the young adult stage (1 to 6 years) represented most of the animals that had some infection. It was concluded that a greater number of animals were positive only for hemotropic mycoplasmas compared to those that were infected only with FeLV and the presence of hemotropic mycoplasmas in the population of FeLV-positive cats was quite evident.