UABDivulga - Barcelona recerca i innovació

In the last four years, some veterinary clinicians dedicated to exotic medicine in Barcelona observed a new disease in ferrets similar to feline infectious peritonitis (FIP) in cats. FIP is a multisystemic and fatal disease of cats caused by the Feline Coronavirus.

We performed an histopathological study of some tissues from nine of these ferrets and we observed different inflammatory lesions (granulomas) similar to those described in cats with FIP. Using a monoclonal antibody (FCV3-70) we also detect viral antigen of group 1 coronavirus in tissue samples from eight of these animals. This is the first description of a new multisystemic disease in ferrets caused by one coronavirus. Moreover, these findings open a new way of research of the role of coronavirus in animal diseases.