Prevalence of select infectious agents in inflammatory aural and nasopharyngeal polyps from client-owned cats

Benign, inflammatory polyps may affect the nasopharynx and auditory canal of cats. It has been proposed that inflammation induced by infectious disease agents could trigger polyp formation. The objective of this pilot study was to determine the prevalence of feline herpesvirus-1 (FHV-1), feline calicivirus (FCV), Mycoplasma species, Bartonella species and Chlamydophila felis nucleic acids in polyp tissues collected from 30 clinically affected cats. Samples collected from the tympanic bulla from 12 clinically normal cats were also assayed. DNA or RNA of some of the target agents were amplified from samples from 25% of normal cats and 33% of affected cats; however, statistical associations were not detected for individual agent results or grouped results. The study documents that common oropharyngeal or blood borne agents can be detected in the tympanic bullae of normal cats. Failure to consistently amplify RNA or DNA of the select agents from polyp tissues suggests the agents studied were not directly associated with the pathogenesis of this syndrome in the cats tested. Alternately, the inflammatory response may have cleared microbial nucleic acids to undetectable levels by the time of sample collection.