Achados ultrassonográficos em felinos domésticos felv positivos atendidos no hospital veterinário da Universidade Federal da Paraíba

Abstract

Feline leukemia (FeLV) is an infectious and cosmopolitan disease unique to domestic and wild cats. It is caused by a retrovirus, which means there is no curative treatment available. Transmission occurs through the saliva of an infected animal to a susceptible one, making close contact between cats a facilitator for the spread of the disease. The gold-standard diagnosis is performed using the immunofluorescence assay (IFA), but ultrasound is also employed as a complementary diagnostic method. This study aimed to characterize the epidemiological profile and describe the abdominal ultrasound findings of FeLV-positive cats treated at the Veterinary Hospital of the Federal University of Paraíba (HV-UFPB) between January 2022 and 2025. From the HV-UFPB archives, 35 cats confirmed as positive for feline leukemia virus and passed through ultrasonographic exams. Regarding the epidemiological profile, FeLV-positive cats were predominantly females aged 1 to 4 years, semi-domesticated, with feline contacts, and without vaccination protocols for the feline polyvalent vaccine. As for the ultrasonographic findings, the results revealed that the systems most affected by FeLV were the lymphatic, hepatobiliary, and urinary systems, with the gastrointestinal system being less frequently involved. The main diagnostic impressions were splenomegaly, nephropathy, lymphadenomegaly, cholangiohepatitis, and enteritis, followed by acute/toxic hepatopathy, biliary sludge, lymphadenopathy, abdominal effusion, bladder sediments, pancreatitis, hepatosplenomegaly, splenic neoplastic infiltration, cholecystitis, dysbiosis, and splenitis. Thus, it was concluded that the cats infected with FeLV treated at HV-UFPB were mostly within the risk factors for the disease, with the lymph nodes and spleen being the main organs affected, as indicated by ultrasonographic findings.