Contact: Geoff Freeth

Canobolas Pet Hospital

10 William St.,

Orange. NSW

Phone 63626991

Fax 6362620489

There has been a lot of public concern due to the human AIDs epidemic but what many people don’t realise is that there is a similar epidemic of AIDs in our feline friends. Most studies say that the incidence of FIV or feline immunodeficiency virus, which causes feline AIDs, is somewhere between 12 and 17 percent of cats, an incidence greater than the similar HIV, or human immunodeficiency virus, in people. The good news for cats though, is that there is a vaccine that is effective and easy to administer.

FIV affects a cat’s immune system so that it is more prone to life threatening infections and tumours. It is passed on by cat bites through the saliva and so it’s spread is more common in Spring time, during cat breeding season when cats are more territorial. Once infected with the virus there is no known cure, leaving the only course to treat the symptoms as they arise.

Some cats live with FIV all their lives without showing any signs of infection, dying from other causes. These undiagnosed cats are often the source of infection in a neighbourhood with vets able to pin point certain areas in Orange where FIV is common.

Importantly, while FIV and HIV are related there is no evidence of spread between cats and people or from people to cats.

A vaccine is available for cats to protect them against getting FIV because the virus in cats doesn’t seem to change its external structure in the way that HIV does. This stability allows us to make a vaccine that is specific for FIV. Hopefully with time FIV will become a rare rather than a common condition in cats.