Cat health: Mysterious staggering disease is down to previously unknown virus

A previously unknown rustrela virus might be the cause of a staggering disease that affects cats in some parts of Europe

By Michael Le Page

The cause of a brain disease in cats that makes them develop symptoms such as staggering is a previously unknown virus, a study suggests. The pathogen is a rustrela virus and is probably carried by wood mice.

The findings show that rustrela viruses are more diverse and widespread than previously thought, according to Kaspar Matiasek at the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich and his colleagues. They write that the viruses might cause neurological diseases in other mammals …