Some of our members have been interested in the research that has been done in my laboratory concerning FIP. The following is a list of all of the papers that have been published in peer-reviewed journals, as well as two textbooks that contain important information on FIP as well as other feline infectious diseases and feline husbandry in multiple-cat environments. I feel that my laboratory and a number of my students have made significant contributions to our knowledge of FIP. No, we do not yet have a cure or a highly effective strategy to prevent the disease, but we now have a sound basis of knowledge to go forward on a broad front. Efficacious anti-viral drugs will be found against FIP virus, but it will take more time and a lot more money, as anti-viral drug development is extremely expensive. We feel that there is hope in using genetics to increase resistance to the disease. We will ultimately understand how simple mutations in the Feline Enteric Coronavirus can lead to FIP, and how the mutant FIP virus can evade the host’s immune system. Unfortunately, it is my personal opinion that an efficacious vaccine will not be forthcoming.

We have been criticized from time-to-time, and again recently, for the use of laboratory-bred cats in some of our research projects. The most recent criticism accuses me of being unethical for the use of laboratory cats in a recent study involving natural immunity to FIP. Unethical was an inappropriate charge because all animal research is strictly controlled by the USDA and Institutional Animal Use and Care committees to make sure that it is ethically sound. I accept that there are moral differences on this issue and have been consistent in encouraging those opposed to the use of laboratory cats in research to direct their support to those groups and organizations that fund only research on naturally occurring disease. I hope that these people will realize that much of what we have learned from experimental disease has had a direct impact on the conduct and design of studies on naturally occurring disease and vice versa. Finally, FIP research was a lonely undertaking when I first started in 1964. I have reviewed the literature from the first recognition of FIP to 2009 and recently reviewed the FIP literature from 2009 through early 2014. These three review papers have been made freely available to the public on this website. It is noteworthy that there are almost as many researcher publications on FIP during the last 5 years than in the decades that preceded it.

FIP is not a rare disease – it kills thousands of young (and a few old) cats each year and one estimate has linked FIP to as many as 1 in 300 deaths among cats seen at North American veterinary schools. I think that we need to give thanks to the many cats that have died from FIP, both naturally and induced, for their great contributions to our present knowledge of this extremely complex infection. Answers will not come unless people support FIP research, wherever it is being conducted and whether it involves natural or experimental disease or a combination of both. The simplest contribution would be a buccal swab for DNA from a cat with FIP or an immediate relative.

Abstracts and in many cases full-text documents can be found for many of these articles on PubMed (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed). Just type in “Pedersen NC and FIP” or “Pedersen NC and feline coronavirus” in the search space and the articles will appear. If you then click on the title of the article, an abstract will appear if available. If you have open access to a full-text article, a link will be present in the upper right-hand corner.

Ward, B.C. and Pedersen, N.C.: Infectious peritonitis in cats. Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association 154:26 35, 1969.

Pedersen, N.C.: Morphologic and physical characteristics of feline infectious peritonitis virus and growth in autochthonous peritoneal cell cultures. American Journal of Veterinary Research 37 (5):567 572, 1976.

Pedersen, N.C.: Feline infectious peritonitis: Something old, something new. Feline Practice 6 (May):42 51, 1976.

Pedersen, N.C.: Serologic studies of naturally occurring feline infectious peritonitis. American Journal of Veterinary Research 37:1447 1453, 1976.

Pedersen, N.C., Theilen, G., Keane, M.A., Fairbanks, L., Mason, T., Orser, B., Chen, C.H., Allison, C.: Studies of naturally transmitted feline leukemia virus infection. American Journal of Veterinary Research 38 (10):1523 1531, 1977.

Pedersen, N.C.: Feline infectious peritonitis test results: What do they mean? Feline Practice, May:13 14, 1977.

Pedersen, N.C., Ward, J. and Mengeling, W.L.: Antigenic relationship of the feline infectious peritonitis virus to coronaviruses of other species. Archives of Virology 58:45 53, 1978.

Woods, R.D., Pedersen, N.C.: Cross protection studies between feline infectious peritonitis and porcine transmissible gastroenteritis viruses. J. Vet. Micro. 4:11 16, 1979.

Pedersen, N.C., Boyle, J.: Immunologic phenomena in the effusive form of feline infectious peritonitis. American Journal of Veterinary Research. 41:868 876, 1980.

Pedersen, N.C., Boyle, J.F., Floyd, K.: Infection studies in kittens utilizing feline infectious peritonitis virus propagated in cell culture. American Journal of Veterinary Research, 42:363 367, 1981.

Pedersen, N.C., Boyle, J.F., Floyd, K., Fudge, A. and Barker, J.: An enteric coronavirus infection of cats resembling transmissible gastroenteritis of swine, and its relationship to feline infectious peritonitis. American Journal of Veterinary Research, 42:368 377, 1981.

Horzinek, M.C., Lutz, H., Pedersen, N.C.: Antigenic relationships among homologous structural polypeptides of porcine, feline, and canine coronaviruses. Infect. Immun. 37:1148 1155, 1982.

Pedersen, N.C., Black, J.W.: Attempted immunization of cats against feline infectious peritonitis using avirulent live virus or sublethal amounts of virulent virus. Am. J. Vet. Res. 44:229 234, 1983.

Boyle, J.F., Pedersen, N.C., Evermann, J.F., McKeirnan, A.J., Ott, R.L., Black, J.W.: Plaque assay, polypeptide composition and immunochemistry of feline infectious peritonitis virus and feline enteric coronavirus isolates. Adv. Exp. Med. Biol. 173:133 147, 1984.

Pedersen, N.C., Black, J.W., Boyle, J.F., Evermann, J.F., McKeirnan, A.J., Ott, R.L.: Pathogenic differences between various feline coronavirus isolates. Adv. Exp. Med. Biol. 173:365 380, 1984.

Pedersen, N.C.: Feline infectious peritonitis and feline enteric coronavirus infections. Part I: Feline enteric coronavirus. Feline Practice 13(4):13 19, 1984.

Pedersen, N.C.: Feline infectious peritonitis and feline enteric coronavirus infections. Part II: feline infectious peritonitis. Feline Practice 13(5):5 14, 1984.

Pedersen, N.C., Evermann, J.F., McKeirnan, A.J., and Ott, R.L.: Pathogenicity studies of feline coronavirus isolates 79 1146 and 79 1683. Am. J. Vet. Res. 45:2580 2585, 1984.

Pedersen, N.C., Floyd, K.: Experimental studies with three new strains of feline infectious peritonitis virus: FIPV UCD2, FIPV UCD3, and FIPV UCD4. Compendium 7:1001 1011, 1986.

Hawkins, E., Johnson, L., Pedersen, N.C., and Winston, S.: Use of tears for the diagnosis of feline leukemia virus infections. J. Am. Vet. Med. Assoc. 188:1031 1034, 1986.

Pedersen, N.C.: Virologic and immunologic aspects of feline infectious peritonitis virus infection. Adv. Exp. Med. Biol., 218:529-550, 1987.

Pedersen, N.C.: Feline Infectious Diseases. American Veterinary Medical Publica¬tions, Goleta, CA, 1988.

Pedersen, N.C.: Animal virus infections that defy vaccination: Equine infectious anemia, caprine arthritis-encephalitis, maedi-visna, and feline infectious peritonitis. Adv. Vet. Sci. Comp. Med. 33:413-428, 1989.

Pedersen, N. C.: Feline Husbandry. Diseases and management in the multiple-cat environment. American Veterinary Pulications, Goleta, CA, 1991.

Vennema, H., Poland, A., Floyd-Hawkins, K. and Pedersen, N.C.: A comparison of the genomes of FECVs and FIPVs and what they tell us about the relationships between Feline Coronaviruses and their Evolution. Feline Practice 23(3):40-44, 1995.

Hickman, M.A., Morris, J.G., Rogers, Q.R., and Pedersen, N.C.: Elimination of feline coronavirus infection from a large experimental specific pathogen-free cat breeding colony by serologic testing and isolation. Feline Practice 23(3):96-102, 1995.

Foley, J.E. and Pedersen, N.C.: Inheritance of susceptibility of feline infectious peritonitis in purebred catteries. Feline Practice 24(1):14-22, 1996.

Poland, A.M., Vennema, H., Foley, J.E. and Pedersen, N.C.: Two related strains of feline infectious peritonitis virus isolated from immunocompromised cats infected with the feline enteric coronavirus. Journal of Clinical Microbiology 34(12):3180-3184, 1996.

Foley, J.E., Poland, A., Carlson, J. and Pedersen, N.C.: Patterns of feline coronavirusinfection and fecal shedding from cats in multiple-cat environments. Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association 210(9):1307-1312, 1997.

Foley, J.E., Poland, A., Carlson, J. and Pedersen, N.C.: Risk factors for feline infectious peritonitis among cats in multiple-cat environments with endemic feline enteric coronavirus. Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association 210(9):1313-1318, 1997.

Vennema, H., Poland, A., Foley, J. and Pedersen, N.C.: Feline infectious peritonitis viruses arise by mutation from endemic feline enteric coronaviruses. Virology 243(1):150-157, 1998.

Gut, M., Leutenegger, C.M., Huder, J.B., Pedersen, N.C. and Lutz, H.: One-tube fluorogenic reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction for the quantitation of feline coronaviruses. Journal of Virological Methods 77(1):37-46, 1999.

Dean GA, Olivry T, Stanton C, Pedersen NC. In vivo cytokine response to experimental feline infectious peritonitis virus infection. Veterinary Microbiology 97:1-12, 2003.

Kiss I, A Poland and NC Pedersen. Disease outcome and cytokine responses in cats immunized with a virulent feline infectious peritonitis virus (FIPV)-UCD1 and challenge-exposed with virulent FIPV-UCD8. Journal of Feline Medicine and Surgery 6:89-97, 2004.

Pedersen NC, Sato R, Foley JE, and Poland AM. Common virus infections in cats, before and after being placed in shelters, with emphasis on Feline Enteric Coronavirus. Journal of Feline Medicine and Surgery 6(2):83-88, 2004.

Pedersen, NC, Lyons LA. Pathogenesis of feline enteric coronavirus infection. J Feline Medicine Surgery, 10(6):225-258, 2008.

Pedersen NC. A review of feline infectious peritonitis virus infection: 1963-2008. Journal of Feline Medicine and Surgery 11(4):225-58, 2009.

Pedersen NC, Liu H,. Dodd KA, Pesavento PA. Significance of Coronavirus Mutants in Feces and DiseasedTissues of Cats Suffering from Feline Infectious Peritonitis. Viruses , 1, 166-184, 2009.

Pedersen NC, Liu H, Scarlett J, Leutenegger CM, Golovko L, Kennedy H, Kamal FM .Feline infectious peritonitis: role of the feline coronavirus 3c gene in intestinal tropism and pathogenicity based upon isolates from resident and adopted shelter cats. Virus Res. 165(1):17-28, 2012.

Golovko L, Lyons LA, Liu H, Sørensen A, Wehnert S, Pedersen NC. Genetic susceptibility to feline infectious peritonitis in Birman cats. Virus Research, 175(1):58-63, 2013.

Pedersen NC. An update on feline infectious peritonitis: diagnostics and therapeutics. Vet J. 201(2):133-41, 2014.

Pedersen NC. An update on feline infectious peritonitis: virology and immunopathogenesis. Vet J. 201(2):123-32, 2014.

Pedersen NC, Liu H, Gandolfi B, Lyons LA. The influence of age and genetics on natural resistance to experimentally induced feline infectious peritonitis. Vet Immunol Immunopathol. 2014 Sep 16. pii: S0165-2427(14)00199-8. doi: 10.1016/j.vetimm.2014.09.001. [Epub ahead of print] PubMed PMID: 25265870.