Vaccination
- Vaccination against FeLV does not diminish the importance of testing to identify and isolate cats that are progressively infected.
- It cannot be concluded that FeLV vaccination protects against all outcomes of FeLV infection. Nevertheless, several current vaccines are still of great clinical importance because they appear to be efficacious at preventing progressive infection and, thus, curtailing FeLV-associated diseases.
- Vaccines against FIV are no longer available in North America since 2015, but vaccinated cats may still live in this region.
Limiting Transmission in the Veterinary Practice
- Hospitalized retrovirus-infected cats can be kept in the general hospital wards, but should not be allowed to have direct contact with other hospitalized cats.
- Retrovirus-infected cats should not be housed in isolation with other sick cats as their immunocompromised status could increase their risk of nosocomial infection.
- Cats used for blood or tissue donation should be screened and confirmed to be negative for FeLV antigen by ELISA and FeLV provirus by PCR, as well as for FIV antibodies.
- There is little risk of retrovirus transmission among cats by indirect exposure when simple precautions and routine cleaning procedures are followed.
- Reusable dental and surgical instruments should be cleaned according to appropriate sterility principles.
Considerations for Multi-Cat Environments
- All cats entering shelters should be considered potentially retrovirus-infected, regardless of the environment from which they originated.
- Retrovirus-infected cats should not be housed in isolation with other sick cats as their immunocompromised status could increase their risk of nosocomial infection.
- It is broadly recommended that all cats be tested for retroviral infection, but an exception exists for free-roaming stray and feral community cats in trap–neuter–return (TNR) programs.
- The presence of infection can vary within individual litters, community cat colonies, and households. It is not appropriate to conserve costs by testing one cat as a proxy for others or by pooling samples from a group of cats.