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There is often confusion between FIV and FeLV, this is particularly the case regarding the transmission of the virus.
The FIV virus is present in the saliva, and for transmission to another cat to take place, the live virus has to enter the bloodstream or the recipient cat.
There are two main reasons why FIV isn't transmitted via shared bowls or mutual grooming as is sometimes wrongly suggested:
Firstly the virus is very fragile, and does not live for long once outside the body - it is destroyed by drying, light, heat and basic detergents - normally the virus will be long-dead before any surfaces come to be cleaned, it is the initial drying that sees off the vast majority of the virus, and this will normally happen in seconds.
This is why the route of transmission is primarily via a bite, where the still wet saliva containing the live virus is effectively injected through the skin directly into contact with the blood of the recipient cat.
The second reason is that the mucous membrane is a fairly effective barrier to the virus, so even if some virus does enter the cat's mouth, it is very unlikely to cross the mucous membrane, so will likely die within the stomach. It has been suggested that, for the virus to actually infect a cat when taken in through the mouth, there would need to be ten thousand times as much virus present for it to achieve a cross infection.
Interestingly, this is confirmed by the fact that kittens born to an FIV+ mother are rarely infected with the virus - although the kittens are not infected directly in the womb, as the placenta will protect them, the virus is present in the mother's milk, so all kittens will have prolonged exposure to the live virus in their digestive systems, yet it is very uncommon for the kitten to actually become infected - this is testiment to how effective the mucous membrane must be in preventing transmission.
It is for these reasons that the often prescribed "keep separate from other cats" is NOT valid. FIV cats can live communally with non-FIV cats with very little risk of the virus being transmitted between them - unless the cat is a fighter and gives another cat a serious bite, which is rare with properly introduced household cats. The vast majority of cats, once neutered, will not bite other cats they live with - they may play and scrap, but this rarely leads to the serious bite required to inject the virus. There are numerous examples of households with large numbers of cats living together with FIV+ cats without the virus being transmitted. A slow and careful introduction is required when bringing any new cat into an existing household, especially so with an FIV cat.
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