http://veterinarycalendar.dvm360.com/avhc/article/articleDetail.jsp?id=567324&sk=&date=&pageID=2 <http://veterinarycalendar.dvm360.com/avhc/article/articleDetail.jsp?id=567324&sk=&date=&pageID=2>
I did a quick search and found the above link that talks about exposure and reversion (paragraph excerpt below from 2008). I've been away from felv for a while and am not at all up to date on the research. Apparently they now suspect that once a cat is exposed and tests a true pos, (Sally may have tested false pos), then they are considered infected for life whether or not they are symptomatic. If my head weren't hurting so much I might be able to do a better job of translating their "veterinary speak". It does appear that they wouldn't quantitatively know the answer to my question at this point anyway. What do you think?
Ideas on possible outcomes of infection with FeLV are currently undergoing re-evaluation. In the past, it was believed that about 1/3 of cats became persistently viremic and about 2/3 would clear infection. New research using PCR technologies suggests that most cats remain infected for life following exposure to FeLV. However, they may revert to a non-viremic state that is termed regressive infection. In regressive infections, there is no antigen present in the blood and virus cannot be cultured from blood. But FeLV proviral DNA can be detected in blood using PCR (Pepin, Tandon et al. 2007). The significance of PCR-positive but antigen-negative regressive infections is not yet clear. These cats are unlikely to shed infectious virus in saliva, but may transmit proviral DNA via blood transfusion if used as a blood donor. Prior to the advent of PCR technology, the term "latency" was used for antigen-negative cats where virus could not be cultured from blood, but could be cultured from bone marrow or other tissues. It now appears that "latency" is a phase through which cats pass during regressive infection.
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