Studies on cofactors for development of acquired immunodeficiency syndrome in feline immunodeficiency virus infection.

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A long-term clinical observation of 11 asymptomatic carrier cats naturally infected with feline immunodeficiency virus (FIV) resulted in disease progression in 4 animals including 2 mortalities. In order to answer the question why only a small proportion of naturally infected cats develop illness during a given period of time, or why none of the experimentally inoculated animals has ever developed terminal AIDS illness, experimental manupilation of infection by use of immunosuppressive or immunomodifier drugs and secondary viral infection was attempted. Addiministration of corticosteroid, serum thymic factor, or live attenuated vaccinia virus had no effect in potentiating the experimental infection of cats with FIV-Petaluma strain. Some immunoenhancing effect, as determined by a quantitative assay of CD4 positive cells, was demonstrated in infected cats with secondary vaccinia virus infection. Next, in order to study the difference among virus isolates, a Japanese isolate FIV was inocluated into 5 SPF cats. Three of 5 cats died within 2 years with AIDS-like illnesses. After completing these experiments in the same environment using the same cat breed, it was indicated that pathogenicity of the virus rather than environmental cofactors may be an important determinant in producing the terminal immunodeficiency in cats.