Hi Jamie, (notice my changing the subject line ;)) OK........I'm going to give this a shot and I know ;) Pam will correct me, but some of the information comes from Julie Levy's articles and others, so I have her (Julie) on my side. And because I have Frayle who is FIV/FeLV, I'm more interested than before about FIV......
First of all, when we are using ELISA to test for FIV in kittens or cats, it is to detect ANTIBODIES. This is different than the ELISA test for FeLV, which tests for ANTIGEN. FIV In the various studies over the years, most, but not all cases of FIV infection are acquired via horizontal transmission by bite wounds. It is the saliva that carries the infectious virus for the most part. As was discussed in a previous thread, FIV has been transmitted to female cats by artificial insemination using semen from FIV-infected male cats. More studies will be required to determine the actual risk of FIV transmission via casual or sexual contact. Placental or colostral (vertical) transmission of FIV from a queen to her offspring is considered to be very infrequent in nature. When it does occur, it is generally when the female is experiencing the acute stage of infection (newly exposed) when the viral load is at its peak, prior to antibody development. (a few weeks). After the acute stage of infection, the plasma antibody titer rises, circulating virus is often undetectable and vertical transmission becomes unlikely. The practical aspect of transmission research arises when clients present kittens for routine testing or when one of the cats in a household is found to be infected with FIV. Although kittens that nurse chronically infected queens are unlikely to become infected, they readily absorb colostral antibodies against FIV. Testing such a ketten will result in a false-positive result, because diagnostic enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) or Western blot tests detect antibodies, not antigen. Most such kittens are truly uninfected, and colostral antibody titers decline over a period of several months. Therefore, a diagnosis of FIV infection should not be made on the basis of antibody test before the age of 6 months. This is very different then FeLV transmission!!!! Glenda ----- Original Message ----- From: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Tuesday, May 14, 2002 7:14 AM Subject: Re: Re: introduction > I may be confused on this, but I thought w/ FIV you were supposed to separate the kittens from the mom b/c that is when she is likely to infect them (not during pregnancy). However, I thought w/ Felv they were pretty much born w/ it or not. I guess one that would have been negative could become infected through nursing or grooming? Maybe I just answered my own question there! But aren't the odds pretty high that the kittens WILL be positive? > > Jamie
