Use of feline herpesvirus as a vaccine vector offers alternative applications for feline health

•Feline herpesvirus (FHV-1) has been studied as a viral vector following modification of the genome using different techniques.•Candidate vaccines against multiple different feline pathogens have been constructed utilising FHV-1 as a vector.•FHV-1 also has the potential to be used as a vector for feline immunocontraceptives and gene delivery. Herpesviruses are attractive vaccine vector candidates due to their large double stranded DNA genome and latency characteristics. Within the scope of veterinary vaccines, herpesvirus-vectored vaccines have been well studied and commercially available vectored vaccines are used to help prevent diseases in different animal species. Felid alphaherpesvirus 1 (FHV-1) has been characterised as a vector candidate to protect against a range of feline pathogens. In this review we highlight the methods used to construct FHV-1 based vaccines and their outcomes, while also proposing alternative uses for FHV-1 as a viral vector.