----- Original Message ----- From: "Tad Burnett" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Wednesday, December 08, 2004 3:17 PM Subject: Re: contagiousness of FELV and other thoughts.../strain
> OK...Stage...Phase...what ever.... > The origional question was about strain.... > To me that would be like the Hong Cong Flue...Which we have been getting > a new strain of every year for 50 years +- ... I have never heard of yearly antigenic drifts in the FeLV-A virus. If there were, it would be well-published and the FeLV vaccine would be changed every year accordingly. This has not been happening. FeLV vaccines have been improved from time to time and some brands are more efficacious than others, but this is not in response to antigenic drifts or even worse, antigenic shifts in the virus. > I have heard that there are a number of strains of FeLV...and I would > think that was the organism that initialy enters the cat.... And the > question was wheather there was a way of identifing the strain.... You should refine your terminology a tad, Tad when referring to strains because combinations of FeLV-A + B and FeLV-A + B + C are referred to as strains. The strains of the infecting FeLV-A are of little practical importance. To answer your question, yes, FeLV-A strains can be identified by RNase T1 oligonucleotide fingerprinting. But this is available only in research facilities for research purposes. Subgroup classification would be more important since the subgroups usually determine the outcome and types of diseases that will develop after infection. > > It is also said that some strains are more likely to turn into B or C.... "It is also said" Doesn't carry much credibility. Where did you hear that? Ong.
