A. Lazo et al., SEXUAL TRANSMISSION OF SIMIAN T-LYMPHOTROPIC VIRUS TYPE-I - A MODEL OF HUMAN T-LYMPHOTROPIC VIRUS TYPE-I INFECTION, Leukemia, 8, 1994, pp. 190000222-190000226
Simian T-lymphotropic virus type-I (STLV-I) seronegative females place
d together with seropositive melee for breeding purposes were followed
from 1984-1990 to determined seroconversion rates by enzyme immunoass
ay and western immunoblot analysis. Two of 26 females end 1 of 4 males
previously negative for antibodies to STLV-I seroconverted during the
study period. Statistical analysis of sexual encounters indicated tha
t the probability of a seronegative female testing positive for STLV-I
after a sexual encounter with a seropositive male is leer than 4%. Th
ese data indicate that even though sexual contact is important in the
transmission of STLV-I. it may not be an efficient mode of viral infec
tion. These data also suggest that female-to-male transmission of STLV
-I occurs. as recently reported for human T-lymphotropic virus type-I
(HTLV-I) infection. These results are important because HTLV-I and STL
V-I share many features in common including routes of viral transmissi
on. In addition. the difficulty of clearly quantitating the risks of s
exual transmission in humans makes the primate animal model a valuable
alternative to study the human infection.