Primate Lentiviruses

Brigitte E. Beer1 , Elizabeth Bailes2 , Paul M. Sharp2 , and Vanessa M. Hirsch1

INTRODUCTION
The human immunodeficiency viruses (HIV-1 and -2) together with the simian immunodeficiency
viruses (SIV) comprise the primate lentivirus family. Since the isolation of the first SIV in 1985 [15],
our knowledge of the diversity of these primate lentiviruses has continuously developed by the isolation
and characterization of new SIV strains from additional species of African simians. It is now clear
that the SIVs are a large group of viruses that can be found naturally in feral and domesticated African
primates, such as guenons, mangabeys, mandrills, and chimpanzees; to indicate the species from which
each SIV was isolated they are given a short suffix, such as SIVagm for the virus derived from African
green monkeys. Most of these African primates are natural hosts for these viruses, but some infections
are the result of recent cross-species transmissions. In those species that are natural hosts, the proportion
of animals that are seropositive in the wild can be quite high [5, 33, 55, 60], and infected primates do not
seem to develop any clinical symptoms [22, 51, 66]. ...