Interesting question. I guess that answer would be, it depends. If he was exposed to the virus, and he probably was given the close contact litter mates have, it is possible he has developed an immunity. To the best of my knowledge, vets do not currently measure antibody titers to felv - not sure why. I could look into it. (the presence of certain titer of antibody infers immunity).
It is possible he was never exposed to the virus, but given the history seems unlikely. Finally, is it possible for a cat to be exposed, beat the virus and on repeat exposure develop disease. Anything is possible, but unless he becomes immunosuppressed it's not likely. I guess, I would consider it highly likely he has developed an immunity given his history, negative viral status and current age. Of course a false negative is always possible, but also unlikely given repeat testing. Is there a reason you are asking this? If you plan on introducing another felv cat it may be worth while simply vaccinating him anyway. Hope that helps. Jenny On Tue, Jun 1, 2010 at 6:35 AM, Lorrie <[email protected]> wrote: > In 2008 I rescued a litter of kittens. All of them were positive > except one. He tested negative, and retesting has shown he is still > negative. Since he is negative and his immune system beat the virus > his litter mates (all gone now) had does this mean he is now immune > to FelV? > > Lorrie > > _______________________________________________ > Felvtalk mailing list > [email protected] > http://felineleukemia.org/mailman/listinfo/felvtalk_felineleukemia.org > _______________________________________________ Felvtalk mailing list [email protected] http://felineleukemia.org/mailman/listinfo/felvtalk_felineleukemia.org
