Feline foamy virus.txt

Feline foamy virus

Diagnosis
To have a proper diagnosis, one must take one's cat to a veterinarian who will perform multiple blood tests to look for the antibodies for FeFV.  This testing is not always available and can be rather expensive for the pet owner.  Furthermore, there is such a small correlation between FeFV and disease that testing is not always useful.  If an animal is showing symptoms such as those for polyarthritis, veterinarians might examine the joint fluid and treat the symptoms.

Treatment
Currently, there is no treatment for felines with Feline Foamy Virus.  However, ongoing studies are exploring the role of FeFV in viral gene therapy to treat other pathogenic feline diseases. Felines with FeFV often live long, healthy and disease free lives, which is of particular interest in the scientific community in the use of viral gene therapy.
Gene therapy
Many studies have been carried out with a number of foamy viruses and several mammals to better understand the viral replication strategies and viral genomes.  With the increasing number of disease and the increasing number of discoveries linking diseases to genes, the future looks very promising in using foamy viruses for gene therapies.