Coronavirus In Cats Fip. It has two different forms: Feline infectious peritonitis is caused by infection with a virus known as feline coronavirus.
Fip only develops in some cats who are infected with the coronavirus, so exposure does not automatically mean cats will get fip. The virus is an enveloped virus with a helical capsid containing an ssrna genome of approximately 20 kilobases, one of the largest rna genomes of animal viruses. Feline infectious peritonitis (fip) is a viral disease in cats which carries a high mortality due to its characteristic aggressiveness and nonresponsiveness to fever, along with other complications.
What are the signs of fip?
Feline coronavirus (fcov) is a common enteric pathogen of cats, and infection in some leads to the fatal disease feline infectious peritonitis (fip). Fip is most commonly seen in cats less than 18 months of age and in cats older than 12. Feline enteric coronavirus strains can mutate to the more harmful type of virus and cause fip disease. A mutation of the feline coronavirus occurs some cats which enable the virus to infect and replicate in macrophages.