Molecular Study of the Prevalence of Feline Leukemia Virus (felv) in Iranian Domestic Cats from Blood Samples by Reverse Transcription Polymerase Chain Reaction (rt-pcr) in Iran

Department of Small Animal Internal Medicine, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Islamic Azad University, Shahrekord Branch, Shahrekord, Iran Department of Microbiology, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, ShahreKord Branch, Islamic Azad University, ShahreKord, Iran Department of Pathology, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Islamic Azad University, Shahrekord Branch, Shahrekord, Iran Young Researchers and Elite Club, Shahrekord Branch, Islamic Azad University, Shahrekord, Iran * Corresponding author: [email protected], phone: +989133147049 ABSTRACT: Feline leukemia virus (FeLV) is a retrovirus that infects cats. This disease is a form of cancer of blood cells called lymphocytes. FeLV happens in nature not as one genomic species however as a family of closely related viruses. Cats living by infected cats or by cats of unknown infection status, people allowed outdoors unsupervised, where they may be bitten via an infected cat and Kittens born to infected mothers are major groups which are at greatest risk of Feline leukemia virus (FeLV) infection. This investigation was carried out to study the prevalence of FeLV in Iranian domestic cats using Reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) method. Totally, 90 cats were collected randomly. From each cat, 1 mL blood sample was taken and all samples were transferred to the laboratory in a cooler with ice-pack. DNA was extracted and PCR was developed to detect the U3 LTR region of FeLV. Totally, 11 out of 90 samples (12.22%) were positive for presence of FeLV. The FeLV had the higher prevalence in male cats (63.63%) than female (36.36%). Cats which were lower than 3 years had the highest prevalence of FeLV. The results showed that FeLV is a specific infection and the different common feline infectious pathogens and FeLV seem to be endemic in Iranian cats. Vaccination and testing programs have proven to be effective in reducing FeLV infection in Iran and may potentially totally eliminate it at least in different countries.