Washington, July 23 (IANS) Although the AIDS virus (HIV-1) infected the human population through chimpanzees, scientists long believed that chimps didn’t develop the disease. But new research reveals otherwise.
A study led by University of Minnesota (U-M) professors Anne Pusey and Michael Wilson shows that chimps infected with SIV (simian immuno-deficiency virus), precursor to HIV-1, do contract and die from AIDS.

Infected chimps in their study group were 10-16 times more likely to die than those who were not infected. The team also found that infected females were less likely to give birth and infants born to infected mothers were unlikely to survive.

The virus, they learned, was transmitted sexually and through mother’s milk. Over the nine-year study period, 10-20 percent of the 94 chimps were infected at any one time.

“We hope this will lead to a better understanding of the virus that will benefit both humans and chimpanzees,” said Jane Goodall, whose focus has shifted in recent years from research to conservation of chimpanzees and their habitats.

The study focussed on chimps at Gombe National Park, Tanzania, where Goodall and her colleagues have studied them for nearly 50 years.

Researchers used data that Pusey archived at the Jane Goodall Institute’s Centre for Primate Studies at the U-M, to understand how SIV is transmitted among chimpanzees, and how it affects chimps’ survival and reproduction.

The discovery was published in the July 23 issue of Nature.