Simian Foamy Viruses in Central and South America: A New World of Discovery

Abstract

Foamy viruses (FVs) are the only exogenous retrovirus to date known to infect neotropical primates (NPs). In the last decade, an increasing number of strains have been completely or partially sequenced,andmolecularevolutionanalyseshaveidentifiedanancientco-speciationwiththeirhosts. In this review, the improvement of diagnostic techniques that allowed the determination of a more accurate prevalence of simian FVs (SFVs) in captive and free-living NPs is discussed. Determination ofDNAviralloadinAmericanprimatesindicatesthatoraltissuesaretheviralreplicativesiteandthat buccalswabcollectioncanbeanalternativetodiagnoseSFVinfectioninNPs. Finally,thetransmission potential of NP SFVs to primate workers in zoos and primate centers of the Americas is examined.