The outbreak was detected in Cyprus, where 8,000 specimens have already died. This forced the country’s authorities to administer drugs they had stockpiled to treat humans.
Last June, the Polish health authorities announced that at least nine cats have died infected with the avian influenza H5N1 subtype a figure that in the following days was raised. The unfortunate news came as scientists investigated an unusual cluster of illnesses that have been affecting dozens of cats across the country for the past two weeks.
There World Health Organization (WHO) indicated that influenza or avian influenza, It is an infectious disease that mainly affects birds.
According to reports, affected animals suffered neurological and respiratory symptoms, including seizures and difficulty breathing . According to Paulina Grzelakowska, director of the Tri-City Veterinary Clinic in Gdańsk, northern Poland, the disease has a sudden onset and progresses very rapidly.
NOW, Another disease affects these animals in Europe, this time in Cyprus. The authorities of this country They have confirmed the death of thousands of cats due to the coronavirus . The situation has become so critical that the country’s health ministry on Thursday began administering human drugs meant to treat Covid in a bid to eradicate a virus that has already killed thousands of cats on the Mediterranean island.
Christodoulos Pipis, Director of Cypriot Government Veterinary Services, he told The Guardian newspaper on Thursday that the Cypriot Ministry of Health stockpiled 500 boxes of Covid medicine in a bid to calm the crisis.
Veterinarians began administering molnupiravir, an anti-Covid drug marketed as Lagevrio, to Cypriot cats on Tuesday, a day that coincided with the International Cat Day.
Experts hope the drug, which was originally designed to treat Covid-19 in humans and was taken from a stock reserved for this purpose are helping stop an outbreak of the feline coronavirus, dubbed FCoV-23, which has been ravaging cats on the island since January.
“This is the first batch of 2,000 packs that will be available. Each contains 40 capsules, so we’re talking about a total of 80,000 pills,” Pipis said.
The disease that has already killed thousands of cats that has forced vets to take desperate measures
There feline infectious peritonitis (FIP), a virus that is not transmissible to humans, it has spread rapidly among the cat population of Cyprus in recent months. Local animal rights activists had claimed the disease had killed up to 300,000 cats, but the president of the Cyprus Veterinary Association, Nektaria Ioannou Arsenoglou, told the AP last week. that the figure had been greatly exaggerated.
According to Arsenoglou, a survey of 35 veterinary clinics conducted by his association put the death toll at around 8,000. Arsenoglou said the drug can help cats recover in about 85% of cases but that providing treatment has proven difficult due to the high price of the drug for many cat owners.
“It is simply not true that we are an island of dead cats, but what is happening is very serious”, said.
The infection is almost always fatal if left untreated. said.
The veterinary association on Friday applauded the government’s decision to let its stockpile of human coronavirus drugs be used on the island’s cats. In a statement, the agency said it had lobbied for access to drugs for “reasonable prices” since the beginning of the year, when the spread of the virus became notorious among the island’s cat population.
The virus, which is different from the human virus that causes Covid-19 and cannot be transmitted to humans It is common, spreads through feces, and usually causes no symptoms or only mild illness such as diarrhea.
Certain strains of feline coronavirus can trigger feline infectious peritonitis (FIP), which is almost always fatal without treatment and experts believe a highly virulent, mutated strain of feline coronavirus is behind the current outbreak.
FIP is not a new virus and has been in circulation since 1963 . Symptoms of the disease in felines include loss of appetite, weight loss, depression and fever, according to the Cornell University College of Veterinary Medicine.
The old story of Cyprus with cats
Cyprus has always had a close relationship with cats. Nicknamed “Cat Island”, the connection with felines dates back thousands of years. In 2004, a team of French archaeologists discovered what was described at the time as the oldest historical record of cat domestication in a 9,500 year old cemetery.
It is also said that Helen of Constantinople he sent ships full of cats to the island to hunt poisonous snakes in 400 AD
Today, because of this ancient relationship with these animals, it is estimated that a large number of feral cats roam the island, although the exact number is unknown.
Experts from the University of Edinburgh, who are investigating the outbreak in conjunction with local authorities, found that within 12 weeks, the number of FIP cases confirmed by PCR (polymerase chain reaction) tests increased 20-fold compared to the previous year.
Dr Charalampos Attipa, Senior Lecturer in Veterinary Clinical Pathology, who leads the team from the University of Edinburgh, said: “Our studies are very focused on identifying the possible mutation that led to this highly virulent FCoV strain.”
Although the mutated feline virus is unrelated to Covid-19 and cannot be contracted by humans, molnupiravir, the active ingredient in Covid pills, has been shown to benefit cats diagnosed with FIP.
Source: Latercera
I’m Rose Brown , a journalist and writer with over 10 years of experience in the news industry. I specialize in covering tennis-related news for Athletistic, a leading sports media website. My writing is highly regarded for its quick turnaround and accuracy, as well as my ability to tell compelling stories about the sport.
