What Is Feline AIDS (FIV) and What Are Its Symptoms?

1 Overview

What is feline AIDS

Feline AIDS’s full name is ‘Feline Immunodeficiency Virus (FIV) infection,’ a contagious disease among cats caused by infection with a lentivirus, but it does not spread to humans, dogs, or other animals. Like human AIDS, feline AIDS also destroys the immune system. After infection, cats show mouth ulcers, tooth pain and swelling, weight loss, poor appetite, and fever.

Although veterinary medicine started late in our country and there are no clinical statistics yet, according to foreign institutions, the infection rate among healthy cats worldwide is about 1%–15%, and among sick cats about 3%–44%. Australia has the highest rate at 26%—related to its warm, humid climate.

How do cats get FIV?

Mainly through a bite from an infected or carrier cat, with the wound becoming infected. It can also spread via milk, placenta, mouth, and the reproductive system.

How to test for feline AIDS

Testing is actually simple:

First method: a complete blood count (CBC)

This test is convenient. By observing whether platelet counts are reduced, whether neutrophils are reduced, and whether lymphocytes and monocytes are increased. Generally infected cats show these abnormal signs.

Second method: PCR test

PCR is a nucleic-acid molecular-biology technique that amplifies DNA millions of times in a very short time—efficient, sensitive, and accurate—currently the best way to confirm feline AIDS.

How to be a responsible owner

1. Prevention: completely avoid letting the cat go out and fight with unvaccinated outside cats. Whether a newly introduced or original cat is infected, avoid introducing new cats into the group, since a newcomer may trigger territorial fights, raising the risk of FIV infection.

2. Testing: clinically the only diagnostic method is a test using three drops of whole blood and ten minutes, but false positives can occur, so the vet must interpret carefully. A positive cat should be retested after an interval, because while most cats produce antibodies within weeks, some stay antibody-negative for up to a year, and some severely ill infected cats may show only low antibodies or negative due to antibody-virus binding or full immune suppression.

3. Treatment: once FIV is confirmed, vets can only control secondary infections and ease clinical symptoms. Recent years have seen much research; we hope for the best. For owners, what you can do is care for them tenderly—they’re not much different from normal kittens, only needing more love.

Understanding feline AIDS correctly

‘What, cats can get AIDS?’ ‘I was scratched by an FIV cat, will I get AIDS?’ Many hearing of it for the first time have concerns. Actually, an FIV cat won’t pass it to humans or dogs. The reason to explain FIV is that some, through ignorance, fear it, even rejecting or abandoning them. Although there’s no vaccine yet, the mortality of FIV-infected cats is actually low; usually they live a normal lifespan, some never showing symptoms.

So don’t be scared by the name ‘feline AIDS’—they’re not much different from ordinary cats. Let’s dispel the prejudice, understand FIV cats correctly, and care for them with more love.