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After an incubation period of weeks to months, up to 14% of cats infected with feline coronavirus (FCoV) develop feline infectious peritonitis (FIP): a potentially lethal pyogranulomatous perivasculitis. The aim of this study was to find out if stopping FCoV faecal shedding with antivirals prevents FIP. Guardians of cats from which FCoV had been eliminated at least 6 months earlier were contacted to find out the outcome of their cats; 27 households were identified containing 147 cats. Thirteen cats were treated for FIP, 109 cats shed FCoV and 25 did not; a 4–7-day course of oral GS-441524 antiviral stopped faecal FCoV shedding. Follow-up was from 6 months to 3.5 years; 11 of 147 cats died, but none developed FIP. A previous field study of 820 FCoV-exposed cats was used as a retrospective control group; 37 of 820 cats developed FIP. The difference was statistically highly significant (p = 0.0062). Cats from eight households recovered from chronic FCoV enteropathy. Conclusions: the early treatment of FCoV-infected cats with oral antivirals prevented FIP. Nevertheless, should FCoV be re-introduced into a household, then FIP can result. Further work is required to establish the role of FCoV in the aetiology of feline inflammatory bowel disease.

Background Coronaviruses (CoVs) are major human and animal pathogens and antiviral drugs are pursued as a complementary strategy, chiefly if vaccines are not available. Feline infectious peritonitis (FIP) is a fatal systemic disease of felids caused by FIP virus (FIPV), a virulent pathotype of feline enteric coronavirus (FeCoV). Some antiviral drugs active on FIPV have been identified, but they are not available in veterinary medicine. ERDRP-0519 (ERDRP) is a non-nucleoside inhibitor, targeting viral RNA polymerase, effective against morbilliviruses in vitro and in vivo. Results The antiviral efficacy of ERDRP against a type II FIPV was evaluated in vitro in Crandell Reese Feline Kidney (CRFK) cells. ERDRP significantly inhibited replication of FIPV in a dose-dependent manner. Viral infectivity was decreased by up to 3.00 logarithms in cell cultures whilst viral load, estimated by quantification of nucleic acids, was reduced by nearly 3.11 logaritms. Conclusions These findings confirm that ERDRP is highly effective against a CoV. Experiments will be necessary to assess whether ERDRP is suitable for treatment of FIPV in vivo.

For the interior anchorage zone in post-tensioned concrete structure, International Federation for Presterssing (FIP) proposed a design method based on the theory of Strut-and-Tie Model (STM) (called FIP-STM in the following context). However, the condition of FIP-STM is that the dimension ratio of anchor, b/h , is equal to 1/9. In this paper, the stress distribution in interior anchorage zone was analyzed via using Finite Element Method (FEM) at first. The relationship between ratio of internal force over post-tensioned load ( F/P ) and dimension ratio ( b/h ) ( F/P-b/h curve) was obtained. FEM results show that in case of b/h <1/9, the interior anchorage zone can be simplified to the core region, in which b/h is equal to 1/9 and FIP-STM is still applicable. However, in case of b/h >1/9, the amount of non-prestressed rebar designed in interior anchorage zone by use of FIP-STM is more than that required, and in some cases it is difficult to allocate non-prestressed rebar in the crowded space. Based on the results of stress analysis, a modified approach for FIP-STM was presented, which can be applied for any dimension ratio. With the proposed modification on FIP-STM, the non-prestressed rebar can be reasonably allocated in the narrow space of interior anchorage zone via modifying the internal forces and geometry of FIP-STM. The analytical result shows that for interior anchorage zone about 30% of non-prestressed rebar can be reduced via using the proposed method compared with that using FIP-STM if b/h is equal to 3/10.