Feline panleukopenia has re-emerged in NSW with confirmed outbreaks in Sydney at multiple animal rescue facilities since January 2017.

With the widespread availability of vaccines for decades, there have been no epidemics reported in NSW in the last 30 to 40 years. The disease has mostly struck shelter-housed, unvaccinated kittens.

Canine parvoviruses 2a-2c can infect cats and have occasionally been reported to cause panleukopenia in cats, but no canine isolates have been detected so far in the current outbreak. Sequencing of isolates at Professor Vanessa Barrs’ laboratory at the University of Sydney has confirmed that disease was caused by a strain of feline panleukopenia virus (FPV) almost identical to that detected in an FPV outbreak in shelter-housed cats in Mildura and Melbourne in 2015.

In shelters modified live vaccines can be safely administered from the age of four weeks, and are recommended to be administered in the face of an FPV outbreak every two to three weeks until 16 weeks of age.

Kittens not in a shelter environment should be vaccinated from 6 to 8 weeks of age every three to four weeks until 16 weeks of age or older, as per the WSAVA vaccination guidelines.