Simple at-home tests for detecting cat, dog viruses

“Feline parvovirus (FPV) and canine parvovirus (CPV) infection can be deadly for pets, and clinical signs alone are often insufficient to rule them out,” says Peng Wu, a corresponding author of the study. “A simple at-home lateral flow strip was developed for accurate detection of FPV and CPV, allowing early identification of infections even during the incubation period.”

Cats and dogs can catch infectious diseases just like people, and vaccines protect animals from serious infections. However, missed doses or underlying health conditions leave pets vulnerable to illness, especially viruses like FPV and CPV, which target rapidly dividing cells and can be life-threatening without fast diagnoses. For quick FPV and CPV screenings, researchers have developed test strips that detect viral proteins similar to the way at-home COVID-19 or flu tests work. But current options have low sensitivity, giving false negatives. A team led by Wu and Xianming Li wanted to create an improved lateral flow test strip that accurately detects these viral infections in pets.

The researchers developed a simple DNA detection process to replicate and tag a portion of the cat parvovirus’s genetic material, known as the VP2 gene. The method involves two steps carried out in a small vial warmed by a person’s hand, taking about 35 minutes. Then the solution is deposited onto a lateral flow strip. When the targeted viral DNA is present, the strip produces a red line.

They applied the new process to 14 anal swab samples from a veterinary clinic, and it correctly distinguished all the FPV-positive and FPV-negative samples. A commercial test strip for detecting viral proteins did not identify one FPV-positive specimen. Then the team adapted the test to detect a mutation in the VP2 gene, which differentiates CPV from the feline version. Again, the process demonstrated 100% accuracy on 38 real samples from dogs, outperforming a commercial lateral flow immunoassay that missed four CPV-positive samples.

Finally, the team created a dual-test strip to check for FPV and feline herpesvirus (FHV), which often co-infect cats. In tests with spiked samples, the strip detected the viruses with 88% and 96% accuracy for FPV and FHV, respectively.

Because the team’s simple DNA-based method works at body temperature and uses a small lateral flow test strip, the researchers say the approach could be developed for convenient, accurate tests to diagnose sick pets at home.

The authors acknowledge funding from the National Natural Science Foundation of China, and the Sichuan Science and Technology Program.