The occurrence of feline infectious peritonitis in Denmark

The clinical and pathologic findings in a case of feline infectious peritonitis (FIP) in a 1-year-old male cat are described. The cat had been sick for about 3 weeks and presented itself clinically with depression, anorexia, dehydration, mild icterus and acites and a temperature of 39.5 degrees C. The sedimentation rate was elevated to 80 mm/30 min. An exploratory laparotomy was performed and ascitic fluid, found to be bacteriologically sterile, was collected. Pathologically, lesions involved both abdominal and thoracic serious membranes and viscera, especially the liver. They ranged from acute, focal necrosis or fibrino-necrotic changes to proliferative inflammation mainly characterized by infiltration with mononuclear cells. An identical disease was produced experimentally by intraperitoneal inoculation of ascitic fluid from the clinical case into 2 healthy cats. This is the first published report of the occurrence of FIP in Scandinavia.