4 ms·

Wikipedia links to an article stating that SIV has been present in monkeys and apes for at least 32000 years: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/17/health/17aids.ht

• nonbel 11y ago
  They get that date by assuming humans didn't bring it to the island though, they don't do anything to rule that out: >"Barring the possibility that humans introduced multiple species-specific SIV lineages to the wild monkey populations of Bioko, the mainland and island SIVdrl variants must have been evolving independently since Bioko became isolated ~10,000 yr B.P., and perhaps longer given the high levels of genetic diversity seen within local SIV populations." http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/abstract/329/5998/1487 http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/abstract/329/5998/1487 Interesting stuff. I hadn't thought of this until now, but from these few papers I don't think anyone has tried very hard to rule out the human to simian transmission idea.
  • bad_user 11y ago
    On the other hand SIV isn't killing the monkeys or apes it infected, which makes likely a long coevolution.
    • masklinn 11y ago
      Chimps and gorillas do get AIDS from SIV. IIRC they're relatively recent infections (though older than human HIV) and SIVgor actually descends from SIVcpz. Rhesus Macaques also get AIDS from SIV (SIV was originally discovered in AIDS-suffering macaques)
  • hodwik 11y ago
    >" longer given the high levels of genetic diversity seen within local SIV populations." That is them ruling out that it came from humans.