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I regularly pet and feed stray cats. Some of them live together and some live apart, so sometimes I touch two different cats that normally wouldn't interact with each other.

Also, currently there is an epidemic of FIP in Turkey. There are so many fund raisers for cats suffering from FIP, most of which are short on money because the Turkish currency is too weak for FIP medication sold by USD.

So, when I pet two different cats without washing my hands, which diseases I might carry? Is FIP one of them? Are disinfectants enough to clean my hand between cats?

Thanks in advance!

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    I know, that humans and some pets share some kinds of herpes virus. So rabbits can infect humans and the other way around.
    – Allerleirauh
    Jul 11, 2022 at 19:09
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    Not a full answer: FIP is caused by infection with feline coronavirus. "The most likely route of infection of feline corona virus (FeCV) is oral; therefore, cats from catteries and multi-cat household environments, where cats are shedding the virus in feces and sharing litter boxes, are at higher risk of being infected with the virus." source: ncbi database of scientific papers
    – Allerleirauh
    Jul 11, 2022 at 19:13
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    FeLV is a candidate, it is often called a "friendly disease" since sniffing each others noses or mutual grooming are sufficient to start the initial infection in the upper respiratory tract. The virus is also resilient enough to survive for at least 15 minutes on human skin or clothing and as such can be transferred from cat to cat by hitchhiking on the human, without the human being a host.
    – bgse
    Jul 12, 2022 at 7:13
  • Can someone who knows how to do start a community answer? The comments are great but it is hard for any single person to answer this question.
    – ck1987pd
    Jul 12, 2022 at 10:45
  • @C.Koca Done. When you start writing an answer there's a checkbox "Community Wiki" at the very bottom which converts a user answer to a community answer.
    – Elmy ♦
    Jul 12, 2022 at 12:06

1 Answer 1

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FIP is caused by infection with feline coronavirus (FeCV). From the National Library of Medicine:

"The most likely route of infection of feline corona virus (FeCV) is oral; therefore, cats from catteries and multi-cat household environments, where cats are shedding the virus in feces and sharing litter boxes, are at higher risk of being infected with the virus."

FeLV is another candidate, it is often called a "friendly disease" since sniffing each others noses or mutual grooming are sufficient to start the initial infection in the upper respiratory tract. The virus is also resilient enough to survive for at least 15 minutes on human skin or clothing and as such can be transferred from cat to cat by hitchhiking on the human, without the human being a host.

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