{"topic_id":"companion_practical_aafp_retrovirus","category":"companion-practical","context":"---\ntopic_id: companion_practical_aafp_retrovirus\ncategory: companion-practical\ntitle: \"AAFP Feline Retrovirus Management Guidelines (2020) — FeLV and FIV testing, management, and prevention\"\nlang: en\nsource: \"AAFP/FelineVMA guideline landed as pdf-raw/companion-practical/aafp_retrovirus_2026-08-11.txt (KIMI fetch 2026-08-11); C1 anchor txt pdf-raw/companion-practical/aafp_retrovirus_2026-08-11.txt\"\nsource_file: pdf-raw/companion-practical/aafp_retrovirus_2026-08-11.txt\ndate_parsed: 2026-08-11\ntokens_estimated: 290\nverified: true\nverification: paraphrase\nsource_document: \"2020 AAFP Feline Retrovirus Testing and Management Guidelines (Journal of Feline Medicine and Surgery)\"\ncitation:\n  authority: \"American Association of Feline Practitioners (AAFP)\"\n  title: \"2020 AAFP Feline Retrovirus Management Guidelines\"\n  url: \"https://catvets.com/guidelines\"\n  retrieved: \"2026-08-11\"\n  ref: \"2020 AAFP Feline Retrovirus Management Guidelines\"\n  doc_type: \"guideline\"\n  needs_review: false\nlicense: paraphrase\n---\n\nThe `2020 AAFP Feline Retrovirus Management Guidelines` (published in the `Journal of Feline Medicine and Surgery`) update the heavily referenced 2008 version and aim to give practitioners current information on feline retrovirus infections to optimize patient care. `These Guidelines focus on feline leukemia virus (FeLV) and feline immunodeficiency virus (FIV) infections`, which occur in cats worldwide.\n\nPrevention emphasizes that `The spread of these viruses can be minimized through education, testing, and vaccinations`. The guidelines also note an emerging trend: `screening for FeLV and FIV is increasingly shifting from animal shelters` (where cats are adopted) `to veterinary practices`, where animals receive comprehensive care, and that quantitative testing can better inform clinical decision-making as a cat's immune response and virus levels change over time.\n\nPet-food relevance: retrovirus testing/management is part of the feline preventive-care picture alongside vaccination (covered by the vaccination topic) and the infectious-disease fact sheets. Written in paraphrase mode (AAFP/SAGE copyrighted); exact guideline title, the FeLV/FIV focus, and the prevention wording are anchored verbatim.\n\n## Claims (verified C1 substrings of source_file — paraphrase mode)\n- `2020 AAFP Feline Retrovirus Management Guidelines`\n- `These Guidelines focus on feline leukemia virus (FeLV) and feline immunodeficiency virus (FIV) infections, which are found in cats worldwide`\n- `The spread of these viruses can be minimized through education, testing, and vaccinations`\n- `2008 Retrovirus Testing and Management Guidelines`\n- `screening for FeLV and FIV is increasingly shifting from animal shelters, where cats are adopted, to veterinary practices`\n","sources":["WSAVA Animal Welfare Guidelines 2018 — 2020 AAFP Feline Retrovirus Management Guidelines (retrieved 2026-08-11)"],"source":{"authority":"WSAVA Animal Welfare Guidelines 2018","title":"2020 AAFP Feline Retrovirus Management Guidelines","url":"https://catvets.com/guidelines","retrieved":"2026-08-11","ref":"","doc_type":"official PDF","source_document":"2020 AAFP Feline Retrovirus Testing and Management Guidelines (Journal of Feline Medicine and Surgery)","verification_file":"pdf-raw/companion-practical/aafp_retrovirus_2026-08-11.txt"},"source_document":"2020 AAFP Feline Retrovirus Testing and Management Guidelines (Journal of Feline Medicine and Surgery)","source_file":"pdf-raw/companion-practical/aafp_retrovirus_2026-08-11.txt","trust":{"authority_tier":"ungraded","fidelity":"paraphrase","license":"paraphrase","display_grade":"pending"},"tokens_estimated":290,"generated_at":null,"tip":"Use /api/v1/topics to discover more topics. /api/v1/nutrient for precise single-point queries. /api/v1/cross_compare for 2-3 standard comparisons."}