Feline spongiform encephalopathy (FSE) is a neurodegenerative disease that affects the brains of felines. This disease is known to affect domestic, captive, and wild

species A species () is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate sexes or mating types can produce fertile offspring, typically by sexual reproduction. It is the basic unit of Taxonomy (biology), ...

of the family ''Felidae''. Like BSE, this disease can take several years to develop. It is currently believed that this condition is a result of felines ingesting bovine meat contaminated with BSE.

Symptoms and signs

Clinical signs of FSE typically develop gradually in housecats, ranging from several weeks to months. Initial signs of the condition include behavioral changes such as aggression, timidity, hiding,

hyperesthesia Hyperesthesia is a condition that involves an abnormal increase in sensitivity to stimuli of the senses. Stimuli of the senses can include sound that one hears, foods that one tastes, textures that one feels, and so forth. Increased touch sensi ...

, loss of motor functions, and polydipsia. Other commonly observed motor signs include gait abnormalities and ataxia, which typically affect the hind legs first. Affected cats may also display poor judgement of distance, and some cats may develop a rapid, crouching, hypermetric gait. Some affected cats may exhibit an abnormal head tilt, tremors, a vacant stare, excessive salivation, decreased grooming behaviors,

polyphagia Polyphagia, or hyperphagia, is an abnormally strong, wikt:incessant, incessant sensation of Hunger (physiology), hunger or desire to eat often leading to overeating. In contrast to an increase in appetite following exercise, polyphagia does not s ...

, and dilated pupils.

Ataxia Ataxia (from Greek α- negative prefix+ -τάξις rder= "lack of order") is a neurological sign consisting of lack of voluntary coordination of muscle movements that can include gait abnormality, speech changes, and abnormalities in e ...

was observed to last for about 8 weeks in the affected animals.

Diagnosis

This disease can only be confirmed via a

post-mortem An autopsy (also referred to as post-mortem examination, obduction, necropsy, or autopsia cadaverum) is a surgical procedure that consists of a thorough examination of a corpse by dissection to determine the cause, mode, and manner of death ...

examination, which includes identification of bilaterally symmetrical vacuolation of the neuropil and vacuolation in

neuron A neuron (American English), neurone (British English), or nerve cell, is an membrane potential#Cell excitability, excitable cell (biology), cell that fires electric signals called action potentials across a neural network (biology), neural net ...

es.

Lesion A lesion is any damage or abnormal change in the tissue of an organism, usually caused by injury or diseases. The term ''Lesion'' is derived from the Latin meaning "injury". Lesions may occur in both plants and animals. Types There is no de ...

s are likely to be found in

basal ganglia The basal ganglia (BG) or basal nuclei are a group of subcortical Nucleus (neuroanatomy), nuclei found in the brains of vertebrates. In humans and other primates, differences exist, primarily in the division of the globus pallidus into externa ...

cerebral cortex The cerebral cortex, also known as the cerebral mantle, is the outer layer of neural tissue of the cerebrum of the brain in humans and other mammals. It is the largest site of Neuron, neural integration in the central nervous system, and plays ...

and

thalamus The thalamus (: thalami; from Greek language, Greek Wikt:θάλαμος, θάλαμος, "chamber") is a large mass of gray matter on the lateral wall of the third ventricle forming the wikt:dorsal, dorsal part of the diencephalon (a division of ...

of the

brain The brain is an organ (biology), organ that serves as the center of the nervous system in all vertebrate and most invertebrate animals. It consists of nervous tissue and is typically located in the head (cephalization), usually near organs for ...

Treatment

This is a terminal condition and there is currently no specific treatment for the disease. In most instances, infected felines die spontaneously within a few months to years, or are euthanized due to this condition.

Epidemiology

This disease was first reported in domestic cats within the United Kingdom in 1990, only four years after the first reports of BSE. This disease is caused by a normal prion protein (PrP^C) misfolding after exposure to a pathogenic prion protein (PrP^Sc). FSE is thought to be related to

bovine spongiform encephalopathy Bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), commonly known as mad cow disease, is an incurable and always fatal neurodegenerative disease of cattle. Symptoms include abnormal behavior, trouble walking, and weight loss. Later in the course of th ...

(BSE), as well as other forms of transmissible spongiform encephalopathy (TSE) including, Creutzfeldt–Jakob disease (CJD) in humans, Scrapie in sheep and

Chronic wasting disease Chronic wasting disease (CWD), sometimes called zombie deer disease, is a transmissible spongiform encephalopathy (TSE) affecting deer. TSEs are a family of diseases thought to be caused by misfolded proteins called prions and include simila ...

in deer. Since 1990, cases have been reported in other countries and other feline species in captivity, although most affected felines originated in the UK. The average age of felines that have been affected by this disease is 11 years of age, with the age range being roughly 2–10 years. However, there is not any information regarding research into horizontal transmission under normal conditions between felines.

References

Cat diseases Transmissible spongiform encephalopathies Foodborne illnesses {{veterinary-med-stub