Transmission of simian acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (SAIDS) with type D retrovirus isolated from saliva or urine.

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 isolates from saliva and urine 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 relatedness to MPMV as determined by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) and competition radioimmunoassay (RIA). Electron micrographs of parotid tissue from an animal 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 likely sources of virus by which the disease is naturally transmitted. Thus, care should be taken to avoid contact of normal and infected animals.