A loophole There's a loophole that some fortunate kittens are able to slip through. Consider the journey of littermates Socks and Mr. Jimmers, two young cats who are available for adoption from the Sanctuary. First a little background. There are two tests that are used to determine a cat's FeLV status: a Snap or ELISA, enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay, and an IFA, indirect immunofluorescent anitbody assay. Joni explains, "The Snap test determines if the virus is present in the cat's system, but not at what stage. A positive on the Snap could mean the cat was recently exposed and fighting it off, or that the cat is chronically infected." When these two boys came to the Sanctuary as kittens, they tested faintly positive for FeLV on the Snap test and positive on the ELISA test. A positive on the Snap test can mean that the virus hasn’t gotten into the bone marrow, so they might be able to fight it off. For this reason, this duo lived at Cat World Headquarters, away from other cats with the virus. In time, they tested negative for FeLV on both tests.
Kimber Brantley
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