An increased spread feline ‘aids’ in Norway

Animal protection reports several cases of the fatal disease Feline Immunodeficiency Virus (FIV), better known as cat AIDS, in the past year.

FIV attacks the immune system and can cause the cat to die from inflammation and infections.

According to Lindesnes Avis, the animal shelter in Mandal has euthanised ten cats, four of them so far this year, with the disease FIV.

– “The cats we get are put to sleep. There is no worthy life with so many diseases,” says board member Aina Bø in Animal Protection Norway Mandal.

According to NRK, there are also reports of distribution in Haugesund, Telemark, and Tromsø.

– “It’s a very sad disease. It cannot be treated,” says board chair Anne Lise Skoie Risøe in the Norwegian Animal Protection to NRK.

FIV infects through saliva and blood and is, therefore, most often transmitted between homeless and un-castrated cats because they can suffer the most bites and scratch damage when fighting with each other. Cat aids is therefore also more common in many countries with larger wild cat populations.

The virus cannot be transmitted to humans.

© NTB Scanpix / #Norway Today