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The imported cat is a 9-month-old female cat who developed clinical signs (fever and ascites) compatible with FIP a few weeks after importation. The peritoneal fluid was a modified transudate with neutrophilic inflammation. Subsequent viral sequencing of the peritoneal fluid revealed that the cat was infected with a feline coronavirus (FCoV) that we have recently identified to be the cause of the large FIP outbreak in Cyprus; provisionally, we have named this virus FCoV-23. Unlike cases of classical FIP, which are not transmissible from cat to cat, we have evidence suggesting that FCoV-23 is directly transmissible from infected cats other cats they are in contact with 1.

Sequence analysis of the viral spike gene of the FCoVs from the outbreak in Cyprus and the imported cat indicate they are closely related and a part of the same outbreak. Analysis of the viral genome sequence from cats in the Cyprus outbreak reveals that the virus circulating in Cyprus is a novel recombination between FCoV type I and a highly pathogenic canine coronavirus (pCCoV), with the spike gene of pCCoV replacing the spike of FCoVI.