Abstract
Abstract
Saliva and urine specimens from rhesus monkeys with SAIDS were found to contain a type D retrovirus related to Mason-Pfizer monkey virus (MPMV) which has been linked etiologically to SAIDS. Virus i so1ates from sal i va and uri ne were shown to have the characteristics of the SAIDS agent by their reverse transcriptase divalent cation preference for synthetic template-primers, production of characteristic cytopathology in Raji cells and antigenic relat.edness to MPMV as determined by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) and competition radioimmunoassay (RIA). Electron micrographs of parot id tissue from an anima1 with SAIDS also showed budding particles with type D retrovirus morphology. A tissue culture grown virus isolate from urine of an animal with SAIDS, produced SAIDS when inoculated into two normal juvenile rhesus monkeys. Since saliva and urine of monkeys with SAIDS contain infectious SAIDS virus, they are 1ikely sources of virus by which the disease is naturally transmitted. Thus, care should be taken to avoid contact of normal and infected animals.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.