seroepidemiologic study of fiv in cats refered to small animal teaching hospital, faculty of veterinary medicine , university of tehran, iran

the feline immunodeficiency virus (fiv) is a lentivirus initially isolated from a cat of a cattery in the u.s.a (1986). the virus is similar in it's characters to human immunodeficieny virus (hiv) fiv exists endemically between domestic cats and has been recogniced in many countries. however, the incidence and prevalence status of f1v have not been reported yet in iran. on the basis of present study; among 123 blood samples collected, randomly, from the cats refered to small animals teaching hospital of tehran university and tested for fiv by ellsa and immunoblotting techniques (performed in the institute of immunological sciences, hokkaido university, sapporo, japan) only two cats (1.6%) have shown positive reactions. this is the first report of fiv infection from lran.