ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Vet. Sci.
Sec. Veterinary Infectious Diseases
Volume 12 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fvets.2025.1663056
Feline Herpesvirus Type 1 Infection Alters the Diversity of Upper Respiratory Tract Microbiota in Cats
Provisionally accepted
- Huazhong Agricultural University, Wuhan, China
Select one of your emails
You have multiple emails registered with Frontiers:
Notify me on publication
Please enter your email address:
If you already have an account, please login
You don't have a Frontiers account ? You can register here
Feline herpesvirus type 1 (FHV-1) is a primary pathogen causing feline upper respiratory tract diseases (FURTD), but its impact on the upper respiratory tract microbiota remains unclear. This study aimed to evaluate the impact of FHV-1 infection on the upper respiratory tract microbiota by comparing the microbial composition between FHV-1-positive group with FHV-1-negative group. The microbial diversity in the upper respiratory tract of FHV-1-positive cats (n=8) were analyzed using 16S rRNA high-throughput sequencing, and then this diversity was compared with that in healthy FHV-1-negative controls (n=4). Sequencing results showed that FHV-1 infection significantly increased microbial diversity (Shannon index: 5.55 ± 0.17 vs. 5.30 ± 0.11, p<0.05; Simpson index: 0.95 ± 0.01 vs. 0.94 ± 0.00, p<0.01) and altered community structure, as indicated by beta diversity analysis. At the phylum level, Actinobacteriota showed significantly higher relative abundance in the FHV-1-positive group than in the FHV-1-negative control group (p<0.05). For the genus level, Porphyromonas and Bergeyella were significantly less abundant in FHV-1-positive group versus FHV-1-negative healthy control group (p<0.05). Linear discriminant analysis effect size (LEfSe) identified Prevotellaceae as a biomarker for the FHV-1-positive group.This study provided the first evidence that FHV-1 infection significantly alters the diversity and composition of the upper respiratory tract microbiota in cats. These microbiota changes were likely to play an important role in the pathogenesis of FURTD and offer new targets for the development of microbiota-based therapeutic strategies.
Keywords: Feline herpesvirus type 1, Upper respiratory tract, microbiota, diversity, 16S rRNA sequencing
Received: 10 Jul 2025; Accepted: 07 Aug 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Li, Feng, Bi and Deng. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
Liyang Li, Huazhong Agricultural University, Wuhan, China
Ganzhen Deng, Huazhong Agricultural University, Wuhan, China
Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.