Learn more about recently updated feline retrovirus testing guidelines for feline leukemia virus (FeLV) and feline immunodeficiency virus (FIV) infections.

The American Association of Feline Practitioners (AAFP) has released updated “Feline Retrovirus Testing and Management Guidelines” to the veterinary community.

Published in the Journal of Feline Medicine and Surgery, the guidelines provide the most current information about feline retrovirus infections to veterinary practitioners. “The 2020 guidelines contain new information about feline leukemia and feline immunodeficiency virus infections,” says Retrovirus Guidelines Co-Chair, Susan Little, DVM, DABVP (Feline). “They were written by an international panel of experts that included not only retrovirus researchers, but veterinarians working in private practice and in shelters.”

“These guidelines address rapidly-evolving knowledge about how testing results, clinical expression, and prognosis for FeLV may change over time relative to the cat’s current immune responses…; how quantitative testing may be used to better inform clinical decision-making; and an emerging trend in which screening for FeLV and FIV is increasingly shifting from animal shelters…to veterinary practices,”adds Julie Levy, DVM, PhD,DACVIM, DABVP (Shelter Medicine).