TY - JOUR AU - Peeters, Martine AU - Courgnaud, Valerie AU - Abela, Bernadette AU - Auzel, Philippe AU - Pourrut, Xavier AU - Bibollet-Ruche, Frederic AU - Loul, Severin AU - Liegeois, Florian AU - Butel, Cristelle AU - Koulagna, Denis AU - Mpoudi-Ngole, Eitel AU - Shaw, George M. AU - Hahn, Beatrice H. AU - Delaporte, Eric T1 - Risk to Human Health from a Plethora of Simian Immunodeficiency Viruses in Primate Bushmeat T2 - Emerging Infectious Disease journal PY - 2002 VL - 8 IS - 5 SP - 451 SN - 1080-6059 AB - To assess human exposure to Simian immunodeficiency virus (SIV) in west central Africa, we looked for SIV infection in 788 monkeys that were hunted in the rainforests of Cameroon for bushmeat or kept as pets. Serologic reactivity suggesting SIV infection was found in 13 of 16 primate species, including 4 not previously known to harbor SIV. Overall, 131 sera (16.6%) reacted strongly and an additional 34 (4.3%) reacted weakly with HIV antigens. Molecular analysis identified five new phylogenetic SIV lineages. These data document for the first time that a substantial proportion of wild monkeys in Cameroon are SIV infected and that humans who hunt and handle bushmeat are exposed to a plethora of genetically highly divergent viruses. KW - Cameroon DO - 10.3201/eid0805.010522 UR - https://wwwnc.cdc.gov/eid/article/8/5/01-0522_article ER - End of Reference