A large team of researchers linked to several institutions in Germany, Austria and Sweden has discovered the virus behind the mysterious “stunning” disease that is killing cats across Europe. The team has written a paper describing their work, but it hasn’t yet been peer-reviewed — they’ve posted it on bioRxiv preprint location.
The terrifying disease that afflicts cats has been known to science for almost half a century, but became more alarming in 2020 when it killed a capybara, a donkey and a tree kangaroo in Germany. Over the years, it has been linked to encephalitis in a wide variety of animals.
More recently, the neurological disease has mainly affected domestic cats. Symptoms include loss of the ability to retract the claws, tremors, loss of limb control, and seizures. Cats suffering from the disease stagger like drunks, leading to its nickname. The disease progresses over a period of about two weeks and there is no known cure – there is also very little treatment for infected animals. It is not known how long it takes to kill cats because most if not all victims are euthanized for humane reasons.
Initial study of the disease suggested that it was caused by the Borna disease virus, but subsequent work failed to confirm this idea. In this new effort, the researchers took a more serious look at the disease by trying to find its source. They collected the brains of 29 euthanized cats from locations in Germany, Austria and Sweden. Each of the brains was scanned for DNA evidence of the Borna virus, but none was found. However, they found rustrela virus in 28 brains. The rustrela virus is a relative of the rubella virus that infects humans.
The researchers conclude that their findings strongly suggest that rustrela virus is the cause of the shocking disease in cats, and note that the virus has commonly been observed in wood mice. In addition, they suggest that it is also likely to infect an unknown number of other mammals, possibly including humans.
Study reveals human-to-cat transmission of virus that causes COVID-19 More information: Kaspar Matiasek et al, Mystery of deadly ‘Satisfier disease’ revealed: New rustrela virus causes severe encephalomyelitis in domestic cats, bioRxiv (2022). DOI: 10.1101/2022.06.01.494454
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Reference: Cause of ‘storm’ cat disease in Europe revealed (2022, 5 July) Retrieved 5 July 2022 from
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