Amanda Warr from The Roslin Institute in the UK presented at London Calling 2024 on “What the cat dragged in: emergence of a highly pathogenic feline/canine recombinant coronavirus.” Warr explained that feline coronavirus (FCoV) is common. In a subset of cases, it mutates once in the cat host. This is called feline infectious peritonitis (FIP). A more pathogenic form of the virus circulated and killed cats in Cyprus. The waive of cases peaked at thirty-seven cases. In Cyprus, most cats are strays. Animal shelters in Cyprus reported losses of 30-40%! Tiled amplicon sequencing is used to sequence coronavirus. Warr had experience designing tiled amplicon sequencing schemes. In this case, the challenge was the absence of a high-quality genome assembly. There are a variety of mutants. They sequenced several viruses with the Q20+ barcoding kit LSK-112, and alphacoronavirus 1 sequences varied. Warr spent time assembling a FCoV-23 virus. The spike protein is similar to a deadly canine virus. The virus has been identified in other countries. Warr explained that Cyprus exports cats, and local cats likely have some resistance to the virus. Warr and the team have helped increase the methods of detection and improve databases.
