Feline coronavirus and feline infectious peritonitis (FIP) – Russian roulette for your pet

Feline coronavirus and feline infectious peritonitis (FIP) – Russian roulette for your pet Utilising Machine Learning on clinical datasets could help to crack the enigma of feline infectious peritonitis diagnosis. Coronaviruses came to the forefront of public consciousness in 2019 with the outbreak of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic. However, this family of viruses has long been recognised as important pathogens of animals and man. Feline coronavirus (FCoV) is a ubiquitous pathogen of cats, which can sometimes cause a devastating disease called ‘feline infectious peritonitis’ (FIP) in both domestic and wild felids. This virus is common among pet cats and in multi-cat households and shelters, where its prevalence can be extremely high. Infection is reasonably innocuous for most cats, who may experience asymptomatic infection or develop a mild gastrointestinal upset. However, similar to COVID-19 in humans, sometimes infection has more severe consequences. In a small fraction of cases, usually between 5 and 10% of FCoV-infected individuals, (1) cats develop a severe aberrant immune response to the virus, resulting in FIP. Different types of FIP occur, affecting different tissues, and until very recently, the disease was invariably fatal.