Lack of evidence for HIV type 1-related SIVcpz infection in captive and wild chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes verus) in West Africa.
Serum from 387 chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes verus), caught in the wild or bred in captivity, was tested for antibody to HIV-1 and HIV-2, using second- and third-generation enzyme immunoassays. Six samples were repeatedly positive; however, only one of these was Western blot positive. Serial sera drawn before and after the Western blot-positive samples were seronegative, and thus we conclude that this sample represented specimen contamination, or mislabeling. Thus, none of the 387 Pan troglodytes verus from West Africa were spontaneously infected with SIVcpz. Chimpanzees are known to be exquisitely susceptible to infection with HIV-1 when experimentally inoculated, and thus our findings suggest that HIV-1-related viruses do not exist in Pan troglodytes verus in the wild. As it has been convincingly shown that SIVcpz exists in wild Pan troglodytes troglodytes in Central Africa, this suggests that HIV-1 arose in Central Africa, but not in West Africa.
Prince
Alfred M
AM
Laboratory of Virology, Lindsley F. Kimball Research Institute of the New York Blood Center, New York, New York 10021, USA. aprince@nybc.org
Brotman
Betsy
B
Lee
Dong-Hun
DH
Andrus
Linda
L
Valinsky
Jay
J
Marx
Preston
P
D000350:Africa, Central / Q000453:epidemiology; D000354:Africa, Western / Q000453:epidemiology; D000818:Animals; D004195:Disease Models, Animal; D015483:HIV Antibodies / Q000276:immunology*; D015497:HIV-1 / Q000737:chemistry / Q000276:immunology*; D002679:Pan troglodytes; D016097:Simian Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000821:virology*; D015302:Simian Immunodeficiency Virus / Q000276:immunology* / Q000302:isolation & purification
D015483:HIV Antibodies