Abstract: Background – Domestic cat hepadnavirus (DCH), a hepatotropic virus related to hepatitis B virus (HBV), has been detected globally with molecular prevalence ranging from 0.2-18%. DCH presence in Texas has yet to be investigated.Objective – Determine the prevalence of DCH viremia in cats undergoing diagnostic investigation in Texas.Animals – 400 residual feline EDTA blood samples submitted to the Texas A&M Veterinary Medicine Diagnostic Laboratory between December 2022 and September 2023.Methods – DNA extracted from blood was tested for DCH using qPCR. P CR Amplicons obtained by conventional PCR using overlapping primers were used to sequence DCH positive samples.Results – 3/400 samples (0.7% (95% CI: 0.2–2%) tested positive for DCH DNA, with viral loads of 2.78 × 106, 6.08 × 102, and 2.96 × 104 copies/mL. The low prevalence of DCH viremia precluded risk factor analysis. Whole genome sequence of DCH was obtained from one DCH-positive sample. The Texas DCH strain has the closest nucleotide similarity (98.5%) to a DCH strain from Hong Kong. In phylogenetic analysis, the Texas strain clustered with the Australian 2016 Sydney DCH (MH307930), DCH Hong Kong (OP643862), and two DCH strains from Italy (OQ859620, OQ859619).Conclusions and clinical importance – The prevalence of DCH viremia in Texas of 0.7% was similar to those previously reported in North America (0.2%), South America (1.67%), and Japan (0.78%). Phylogenetic analysis suggests the sequenced DCH strain in Texas is closely related to DCH strains in Australia, Hong Kong, and Italy.
