Feline immunodeficiency virus (FIV) is a virus of cats that cannot infect people.
Just as HIV can eventually cause AIDS in people, cats infected with FIV may eventually develop feline AIDS. FIV may take a very long time to produce any ill effects. An FIV-infected cat may remain in perfectly good health for years after becoming infected. Thus, when a healthy cat of any age is diagnosed as being FIV-infected, this should not usually be viewed as a ‘death sentence’ or a reason for euthanasia.
Cats usually become infected with FIV as a consequence of being bitten by another cat that is already infected with the virus. Bites that are sufficiently deep to transmit the virus usually happen outdoors. Thus, FIV infection is much more common in cats that are allowed to go outdoors unsupervised and get involved in fights.
It is very likely that infection rates are much higher in old cats than they are in young cats.
This is simply because old cats have had many more opportunities to become infected with the virus, which will then persist in their bodies for the rest of their lives.
Just as it is proving very difficult to produce a safe and effective vaccine against HIV, it was difficult to produce a commercial vaccine against FIV.
One major reason why it is difficult to produce effective vaccines against immunodeficiency viruses (e.g. HIV and FIV) is that there are different strains of these fast-evolving viruses around the world.
Vaccination of a cat against FIV does not guarantee that it will be 100% protected, so some vaccinated cats may become infected. In a FIV-vaccinated cat, a negative test result is trustworthy but a positive test result could be a consequence of vaccination, a consequence of FIV infection, or both.
In general, it is recommended to test for preexisting FIV infection before beginning a programme of FIV vaccinations.
Unlike healthy people infected with HIV, healthy FIV-infected cats do not need to be treated with antiviral drugs. However advanced feline AIDS generally necessitates euthanasia because the affected cat’s quality-of-life is irreversibly compromised.
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