[vetvetdoug]

This SARS is more and more looking like a human form of the FIPV. Everything that has been discovered about SARS is parallel to the FIPV disease in cats. This has been scary from day one. The differences in symptoms, the difficulty in diagnosing the virus, the persistance now discovered, the infectiousness from fecal droplets and respiratory droplets, the immune response in respect to the severity of disease, and the scarring of the lungs,(etcetra ad nauseum) are all parallels.

[aristeides]

Illuminating article: Remaining calm in times of contagion. Especially this paragraph:

SARS is caused by a new type of coronavirus, which rapidly sabotages the human body's immune system and starts to reproduce. It makes inroads right into the lungs. It is not yet known whether the virus is extremely destructive during reproduction, or whether the body's immune system reacts so drastically to it that it damages the internal organs, causing breathing failure and even death.

[aristeides]

But a very low percentage of the present cat population comes down with FIP after infection. Of course, that may be because the fatal results of FIP have virtually eliminated the susceptible part of the population.