The American Association of Feline Practitioners recently issued a companion summary to the AAFP 2006 Feline Vaccination Guidelines and an information brief about virulent systemic feline calicivirus infections.

The summary of the vaccination guidelines provides a short reference to considerations and recommendations in the original document.

The AAFP continues to work to make the vaccination guidelines a practical addition to all practice settings. The guidelines reiterate recommendations for vaccines in adult cats and provide important new information concerning vaccines in kittens. The new information has led to changes in protocols for vaccinating kittens against panleukopenia, rabies, and feline leukemia virus.

Recent concerns from veterinarians prompted the information brief on feline calicivirus. The brief describes clinical and diagnostic considerations for outbreaks of disease associated with highly pathogenic strains. It describes clinical signs that should alert a veterinarian to the possibility of such an infection. These include edema, cutaneous ulceration, and multiple organ failure in groups of cats in which adults have more severe signs than kittens. The brief fully explains diagnosis, which requires histologic confirmation of vasculitis and the identification of feline calicivirus in the same samples.

The brief addresses preventive strategies for calicivirus from the Feline Vaccine Advisory Panel. It presents information about vaccine products to help practitioners decide whether to use the products in a clinical setting.

The calicivirus brief, vaccination guidelines, and vaccination summary are available from the AAFP Web site at www.catvets.com. The guidelines also appeared in the Nov. 1, 2006, issue of the JAVMA and are available for free at http://avmajournals.avma.org.