• Korean Journal of Veterinary Research
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• v.63 no.4
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• pp.31.1-31.4
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• 2023

From 2008 to 2017, blood samples from 280 and fecal samples from 149 stray cats in Gwangju, South Korea, were examined for feline immunodeficiency virus (FIV), feline leukemia virus (FeLV), Dirofilaria immitis, and Giardia infections using commercial diagnostic tests. Overall, the combined prevalence of FeLV, FIV, D. immitis, and Giardia was 8.6%, 1.4%, 0.4%, and 2.0%, respectively. FeLV exhibited the highest prevalence rate among the 4 pathogens surveyed, both in the 2008-2009 (9.6%) and 2015-2017 (6.3%) surveys. The results of the feline Giardia study represent the first prevalence report of Giardia infection among stray cats in Korea.

• Journal of Veterinary Clinics
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• v.37 no.4
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• pp.223-226
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• 2020

Cytauxzoonosis is caused by Cytauxzoon felis (C. felis) in wild and domestic cats. However, cytauxzoonosis is uncommon in Asia. Additionally, clinical reports of C. felis infection along with associated complications are rare. A seven-year-old neutered male Maine Coon cat was presented with acute dyspnea and lethargy despite the absence of a history of overseas travel. Mild regenerative anemia and autoagglutination were detected in hematological investigations. The parasitic and viral PCR assays revealed infection with C. felis and feline immunodeficiency virus (FIV). Thoracic radiographs showed pleural effusion with secondary bacterial infection. Ultimately, a diagnosis of infection-induced secondary immune-mediated hemolytic anemia (IMHA) and pyothorax was established. The cat was treated with a combination of atovaquone, prednisolone, and cyclosporine over 6 months and the final treatment was completed 8 months after initiation of therapy. This is the first report of its kind demonstrating successful management of feline IMHA and fatal pyothorax induced by FIV and C. felis in South Korea.

• Journal of Veterinary Clinics
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• v.35 no.5
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• pp.240-242
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• 2018

A 1-year-old, female Bengal tiger (Panthera tigris tigris) presented signs of weight loss and dark browncolored diarrhea. On fecal examination, numerous intact and broken red blood cells were found, but both parasites and inflammatory signs were absent. No significant findings were seen in serum biochemistry profiles, including electrolytes, with negative feline pancreatic lipase immunoreactivity (fPLI). Diagnostic kits using feces or peripheral blood were negative for feline parvovirus, feline coronavirus, feline immunodeficiency virus, and feline leukemia virus. Based on the result of feline trypsin-like immunoreactivity (fTLI) concentration ($4.6{\mu}g/L$), the tiger was provisionally diagnosed to have exocrine pancreatic insufficiency (EPI). After this diagnosis, pancreatic enzymes were prescribed. The feces of the tiger returned to normal form and her weight was increasing. EPI is uncommon and not described extensively in Felidae, including domestic cats. Feline EPI is associated with a variety of non-specific signs and it should be considered in the differential diagnosis of cases presenting with weight loss, diarrhea, and other gastrointestinal signs. In this case, the patient was strongly suspected to have EPI based on the very low fTLI concentration, though the concentration of fTLI in tigers has not yet been determined. This is the first report to present a suspected EPI case in Bengal tigers.

• Korean Journal of Veterinary Service
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• v.40 no.2
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• pp.143-147
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• 2017

A Korean domestic short hair (1-year-old, male) presented with 2 to 3 weeks of seizures, aggressive behavior, vomiting, anorexia, and lethargy. The frequency of seizure had gradually increased from once a week to once every 3 hours. Physical and neurologic examination, diagnostic screening tests, including complete blood count (CBC), serum chemistry, electrolyte, coagulation test, X-ray, ultrasonography, and urinalysis were performed. Feline Leukemia Virus (FeLV), Feline Immunodeficiency Virus (FIV) and Toxoplasma spp. All tested negative, but the Feline Corona Virus (FCoV) kit revealed a positive result. To determine the exact diagnosis, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) was performed but yielded no specific findings. The patient was then diagnosed with idiopathic epilepsy and treatment of phenobarbital was initiated. A month's treatment with phenobarbital proved ineffective as symptoms worsened. Zonisamide was then selected as an additional anticonvulsant. After adding zonisamide, symptoms improved, and seizures abated for 15 months. This is the first case report in South Korea describing the use of phenobarbital and zonisamide in the treatment of a cat with idiopathic epilepsy.

• Journal of Veterinary Science
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• v.24 no.5
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• pp.67.1-67.15
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• 2023

Background: Feline immunodeficiency virus (FIV) causes an acquired immunodeficiency-like syndrome in cats. FIV is latent. No effective treatment has been developed for treatment the infected cats. The first and second generations non-nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors (NNRTIs) for HIV treatment, nevirapine (NVP) and efavirenz (EFV), and rilpivirine (RPV), were used to investigate the potential of NNRTIs for treatment of FIV infection. Objective: This study aims to use experimental and in silico approaches to investigate the potential of NNRTIs, NVP, EFV, and RPV, for inhibition of FIV reverse transcriptase (FIV-RT). Methods: The FIV-RT and human immunodeficiency virus reverse transcriptase (HIV-RT) were expressed and purified using chromatography approaches. The purified proteins were used to determine the IC₅₀ values with NVP, EFV, and RPV. Surface plasmon resonance (SPR) analysis was used to calculate the binding affinities of NNRTIs to HIV-RT and FIV-RT. The molecular docking and molecular dynamic simulations were used to demonstrate the mechanism of FIV-RT and HIV-RT with first and second generation NNRTI complexes. Results: The IC₅₀ values of NNRTIs NVP, EFV, and RPV against FIV-RT were in comparable ranges to HIV-RT. The SPR analysis showed that NVP, EFV, and RPV could bind to both enzymes. Computational calculation also supports that these NNRTIs can bind with both FIV-RT and HIV-RT. Conclusions: Our results suggest the first and second generation NNRTIs (NVP, EFV, and RPV) could inhibit both FIV-RT and HIV-RT.

• Journal of Veterinary Clinics
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• v.37 no.6
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• pp.350-354
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• 2020

Feline chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) is a rare disease. Its diagnosis is not simple because of the absence of clinical signs and the presence of mature lymphocytosis. An 11-year-old female spayed Russian Blue cat was referred to the veterinary medical teaching hospital for lethargy, diarrhea, weight loss, and inappetence. Marked lymphocytic leukocytosis and a significantly increased number of small-to-intermediate-sized lymphocytes in the peripheral blood were found on hematological examination. The results of the feline leukemia virus and immunodeficiency virus test were negative. Further, mild splenomegaly was detected. Bone marrow aspirate analysis revealed mature lymphocytosis and a clonally rearranged T cell receptor gene with the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) for antigen receptor rearrangement assay. Flow cytometric immunophenotyping showed a homogeneous population of CD5+/CD21-T-cells in the peripheral blood and bone marrow. According to the results of the aforementioned examinations, CLL was diagnosed. Treatment was not initiated at the time of diagnosis because the clinical signs were mild and did not affect the quality of life. This report describes the clinical findings and use of advanced diagnostic tools such as molecular clonality analysis and immunophenotyping for the diagnosis of feline CLL.

• Journal of Veterinary Clinics
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• v.31 no.1
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• pp.57-60
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• 2014

A six-months-old male Korean domestic shorthair cat was presented with fever, tachypnea, anorexia, and weight loss and admitted to Lee Seung Jin Animal Medical Center. During the routine physical examination, clinical signs such as mild dehydration and jaundice in the sclera were present. The complete blood count (CBC) and serum chemistry result showed anemia, thrombocytopenia, neutrophilia, and hyperbilirubinemia. Radiography revealed hepatomegaly and splenomegaly. Blood smear and microscopic examination showed severe hemolysis and anisocytosis. We sent the blood sample to the Neodin Veterinary Laboratory for PCR analysis to conduct a test to find out Ehlichia, feline hemoplasmas (haemobartonella), feline leukemia virus (FeLV), feline immunodeficiency virus (FIV) and anaplasma infection. According to PCR examination, the blood of this cat was positive for feline hemoplasmas (Mycoplasma haemofelis), but negative for other pathogens. The patient was prescribed doxycycline for 4 weeks and prednisolone for 1 week. The free of feline hemoplasmas infection was confirmed by PCR recheck after six months.

• Reproductive and Developmental Biology
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• v.32 no.1
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• pp.15-20
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• 2008

Pronuclear DNA microinjection has been the most universal method in transgenic animal production but its success rate of transgenesis in mammals are extremely low. To address this long-standing problem, we used retrovirus- and lentivirus-based vectors carrying the enhanced green fluorescent protein (EGFP) gene under the control of ubiquitously active cytomegalovirus (CMV) promoter to deliver transgenes to bovine embryos. The rate of transgenesis was evaluated by counting EGFP positive blastocysts after injection of concentrated virus stock into the perivitelline space of the bovine oocytes in metaphase II. Among two different types of lentivirus vectors derived from FIV (feline immunodeficiency virus) and HIV (human immunodeficiency virus), the former scored the higher gene transfer efficiency; almost 100% of the blastocysts developed from the oocytes infected with FIV-based vector were EGFP positive. As for the vectors derived Com HIV lentivirus, the transgenesis rate of the blastocysts was reduced to 39%.

• Proceedings of the Korea Contents Association Conference
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• 2007.11a
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• pp.522-526
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• 2007

Since newly emerged disease, the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), spread from Asia to North America and Europe rapidly in 2003, many researchers have tried to determine where the virus came from. In the phylogenetic point of view, SARS virus has been known to be one of the genus Coronavirus, but, the overall conservation of SARS virus sequence was not highly similar to that of known coronaviruses. The natural reservoirs of SARS-CoV are not clearly determined, yet. In the present study, the genomic sequences of SARS-CoV were analyzed by bioinformatics techniques such as multiple sequence alignment and phylogenetic analysis methods as well multivariate statistical analysis. All the calculating processes, including calculations of the relative synonymous codon usage (RSCU) and other genomic parameters using 30,305 coding sequences from the two genera, Coronavirus, and Lentivirus, and one family, Orthomyxoviridae, were performed on SMP cluster in KISTI, Supercomputing Center. As a result, SARS_CoV showed very similar RSCU patterns with feline coronavirus on the both axes of the correspondence analysis, and this result showed more agreeable results with serological results for SARS_CoV than that of phylogenetic result itself. In addition, SARS_CoV, human immunodeficiency virus, and influenza A virus commonly showed the very low RSCU differences among each synonymous codon group, and this low RSCU bias might provide some advantages for them to be transmitted from other species into human beings more successfully. Large-scale genomic analysis using bioinformatics techniques may be useful in genetic epidemiology field effectively.

• Journal of Veterinary Clinics
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• v.22 no.1
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• pp.1-5
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• 2005

Seroprevalence of feline leukemia virus (FeLV) and feline immunodeficiency virus (FIV) infections were surveyed in 875 domestic cats derived from 4 major cities and 4 provinces in Korea. Of those tested, 715 were healthy and 160 were sick. FeLV and FIV were tested with AGEN/sup ⓡ/ FeLV-FIV, a commercial combo test kit. Ten out of 875 cats (1.1 %) were seropositive for FeLV and none out of 875 cats (0%) was positive for FIV, respectively. The positive rates for FeLV were 3.8% in sick cats and 0.6% in healthy cats. The cats at the age of more than 1 year showed higher incidence rates than the younger ones. There were no significant relationships either with the environment or with the sex. The prevalence of seropositive FeLV was 0.7% in mixed cats and 1.6% in pedigree cats. With respect to the regional prevalence of the FeLV, the highest seroprevalence (9.5%) was found in Gyeongsang province.