Virus shuts down shelter cat center

The San Marcos Regional Animal Shelter will be closing the cat adoption center and will not be accepting cats through intake at least until Thursday, June 6 due to an outbreak of Feline Panleukopenia.

Feline Panleukopenia is a highly contagious viral disease of cats caused by the feline parvovirus. Kittens are most severely affected by the virus.

Shelter staff suspects the virus initially began with a mom and kittens that were brought into the shelter showing symptoms of an upper respiratory infection which dramatically changed over the course of their stay. Since then, staff believes other cats have come into the shelter that were exposed prior to their arrival.