Prevalence and molecular characteristics of feline coronavirus in southwest China from 2017 to 2020

J Gen Virol. 2021 Sep;102(9). doi: 10.1099/jgv.0.001654.

Abstract

Feline coronavirus (FCoV) is the causative agent of feline infectious peritonitis and diarrhoea in kittens worldwide. In this study, a total of 173 feline diarrhoeal faecal and ascetic samples were collected from 15 catteries and six veterinary hospitals in southwest China from 2017 to 2020. FCoV was detected in 80.35 % (139/173) of the samples using the RT-nPCR method; these included infections with 122 type I FCoV and 57 type II FCoV. Interestingly, 51 cases had co-infection with types I and II, the first such report in mainland China. To further analyse the genetic diversity of FCoV, we amplified 23 full-length spike (S) genes, including 18 type I and five type II FCoV. The type I FCoV and type II FCoV strains shared 85.5-98.7% and 97.4-98.9% nucleotide (nt) sequence identities between one another, respectively. The N-terminal domain (NTD) of 23 FCoV strains showed a high degree of variation (73.6-80.3 %). There was six type I FCoV strains with two amino acid insertions (159HL160) in the NTD. In addition, 18 strains of type I FCoV belonged to the Ie cluster, and five strains of type II FCoV were in the IIb cluster based on phylogenetic analysis. Notably, it was first time that two type I FCoV strains had recombination in the NTD, and the recombination regions was located 140-857 nt of the S gene. This study constitutes a systematic investigation of the current infection status and molecular characteristics of FCoV in southwest China.

Keywords: NTD; detection; feline coronavirus; recombination; spike gene.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Animals
  • Base Sequence
  • Cat Diseases / epidemiology*
  • Cat Diseases / virology*
  • Cats
  • China
  • Coronavirus / classification
  • Coronavirus / genetics
  • Coronavirus, Feline / classification
  • Coronavirus, Feline / genetics*
  • Feces / virology
  • Feline Infectious Peritonitis / epidemiology*
  • Feline Infectious Peritonitis / virology*
  • Phylogeny
  • Prevalence
  • Spike Glycoprotein, Coronavirus / genetics

Substances

  • Spike Glycoprotein, Coronavirus