Orion Foundation - Taking up the fight against Feline Infectious Peritonitis (FIP)

The mission of the Orion Foundation is to take up the fight against Feline Infectious Peritonitis (FIP). We are a group of cat lovers, breeders, shelters and owners who have come together to battle this disease which currently has no reliable tests, prevention, or cure. We seek to establish and fund more research, encourage and engage in open discussion of husbandry for FIP, collect field experiences, and explore the literature while offering help for managing FIP in cat groups, and comfort to those who suffer losses due to this terrible disease.

Because cats with FIP often continue to purr even close to death, it has been nicknamed “the purring disease.” A democratic virus, FIP can kill any feline, from the common housecat to the Siberian tiger. Most cruelly it prefers kittens and the elderly.

The result of a common and relatively benign Corona virus of the cat’s gut gone bad, FIP survives and perpetuates best where numbers of cats come together. Estimates of just how common the benign virus is among cats vary from 80% to 90% of cats in shelters and catteries world wide. Once virus effects entry into a group of cats, it is there to stay, replicating and mutating, until it eventually produces the tragic pathogen, FIP. The virus gains entry through the intestinal wall, penetrates white blood cells and is carried in the bloodstream to any major organ. The cat’s ability to survive such infection depends upon the reaction and strength of its own immune response. If the response is immature or inappropriate, the immune system itself is responsible for the tissue damage that eventually kills.

Cat breeders face a painful dilemma with this disease which has no prevention, no test, and no cure. Increasingly, responsible breeders have found that the possibility of FIP developing in any kitten placed in a pet home is worthy of discussion with prospective pet buyers. For now replacement is the best the breeder can do, while back in the cattery, continued vigilance, expensive testing, and neutering of parent cats may be taking place.

NO PREVENTION ~ While a vaccine for FIP exists, its efficacy is still under scrutiny and debate, and the recommendations for its use are very limited. No vaccine for its precursor, Corona virus, is available.

NO TEST ~ There still is no definitive test to diagnose FIP. Nor is any affordable test to determine presence of Corona virus commerically available to breeders. Current tests (titers) merely show us “footprints” of where a Corona virus has been. Tragically many cats, even healthy ones have been wrongly diagnosed and euthanized based on a positive result of a Corona titer! The only test for FIP remains the post mortem histological examination of tissues.

NO CURE ~ No matter what form it takes there is still no cure. Treatment is palliative at best, coupled with supportive care to minimize discomfort.

NOW HOPE! Because FIP is primarily a problem of colony cats or cats derived from colonies, and because Feline Corona Virus and FIP behave differently in the field then they do in laboratory models, many breeders are banding together through the Orion Foundation, Inc., a non profit organization, to fund research that holds out the best promise for relief. Areas of special interest include (1) The application of RT-PCR (Reverse Transcriptase -Polymerase Chain Reaction) in detection of chronic shedding cats, (2) What constitutes natural immunity to Corona virus, and (3) Support for a Second FIP World Conference.

A breeders' data base of field experience with the disease is being compiled for use by researchers. There is no more room for secrecy, blame and suspicion. And those who know that are the breeders coming together through the Orion Foundation FIP email list (see below) to help each other deal with the emotional, financial and management uncertainties created by FIP in the cattery.

The Orion Foundation sponsors two email lists. One is open to all who would like to join. You may join this list by entering your email address below.

The other list sponsored by the Orion Foundation is restricted to breeders of cats only. For more information, please click HERE.