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Experts have warned UK pet owners about the potential consequences of a deadly coronavirus outbreak in Cyprus that has killed 300,000 cats. It is a result of the feline infectious peritonitis (FIP) virus that they caught on the island since January, according to Dinos Ayiomamitis, head of Cats PAWS Cyprus. The main worry for British owners is the "long history" between Cyprus and ex-pats travelling to and from the island, with many people rehoming cats to the UK. But what is FIP and why have so many cats died? Coronavirus killing felines on 'cat island' Cyprus. "We have lost 300,000...

Contents of article...Imagine a disease that is infectious yet not contagious, has 100 percent mortality, virtually no diagnostic test to confirm it, and no effective treatment. When FIP becomes a possibility for a pet cat, questions abound yet not nearly enough are answered plus there is a great deal of older information still circulating. We decided to cover some basics here. What is FIP? Is FIP Contagious? How Can an Infectious Disease not be Contagious? Transformation of Coronavirus into FIP Virus What do we Know about the Feline Enteric Coronavirus? Why isn’t the Mutated Virus Contagious? How is it Possible...

A Prayer Request and a Warning for pet owners I just received a FIP positive diagnosis for my cat, Shadowfax. If she does indeed have FIP, she will die in weeks. FIP is 100% fatal and death always occurs within weeks. However her symptoms are not consistent with FIP (she has been well for a week). The vet gave a 50%-50% possibility of actually having FIP versus a false positive. My cats are a very special part of my life, especially because I have a very hard time being "social"--thus they're two of my very best friends. They really helped...

Jewish World Review August 14, 2002 /America: A sissified nation? http://www.NewsAndOpinion.com | Benjamin Franklin warned, "They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety." But that's what the Bush administration and Congress have asked of Americans -- to give up essential liberty for safety that's not even guaranteed. By not being fully appreciative of the fact that it's Washington, not Osama bin Laden, that represents the greatest threat to both liberty and security, we've gone along with the agenda. Let's look at it. Before the fall of the Berlin Wall, the...

Cats 'can catch and pass on Sars' Medical researchers have found cats can catch Sars and pass it on to other animals. A team of US scientists at the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston say the finding raises the question of whether cats can pass the virus to humans. Researcher Dr Robert Shope, an expert on emerging diseases, said: "You might want to quarantine the pets as well as the people. If it's been shown that the virus can transmit from cat to cat, it doesn't take much of a leap of faith that it will transmit to...

A plague on our planet... for ever (Filed: 07/05/2003) The Sars epidemic is just the first of many health scares waiting for us in a highly mobile, densely populated 21st century, say scientists. It is vital that we learn all we can about managing such outbreaks as well as fighting them with technology. Roger Highfield reports Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome is only the beginning. We are set to see many more epidemics sweep across the planet in the coming decades, turning the 21st century into the era of the quarantine and face mask. At risk: one reason deadly pathogens will...