Prevalence of antibody to adult T-cell leukemia virus-associated antigens (ATLA) in Japanese monkeys and other non-human primates

✍ Scribed by Masanori Hayami; Atsumi Komuro; Ken Nozawa; Takayoshi Shotake; Koh-Ichi Ishikawa; Kohtaro Yamamoto; Takafumi Ishida; Shigeo Honjo; Yorio Hinuma

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 1984
• Tongue: French
• Weight: 436 KB
• Volume: 33
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0020-7136
• DOI: 10.1002/ijc.2910330205

✦ Synopsis

The prevalence of adult T-cell-leukemia virus (ATLV) infection was examined in Japanese monkeys living naturally in various parts of Japan and in other species of non-human primates imported into and kept in Japan. Sera of 2,650 Japanese monkeys from 41 troops throughout Japan were tested. High incidences of anti-ATLV-associated antigen (ATLA)-positive monkeys were found in most troops, not only in the endemic area of human ATL(Southwestern Japan), but also in non-endemic areas. The incidence of sero-positive individuals increased gradually with age, reaching a maximum when the animals became adult, indicating age dependency, like that found by epidemiological studies on humans. Anti-ATLA antibodies were also detected in 90 of 815 sera of imported non-human primates of 33 species other than Japanese monkeys. All the anti-ATLA sero-positive monkeys were Catarrhines (Old World monkeys), mainly macaques of Asian origin. Some sero-positive monkeys were also found among animals of African origin, but no antibody was detected in Prosimians and Platyrrhines (New World monkeys). The clear-cut difference between the geographical distribution of sero-positive simians and that of humans indicates the improbability of direct transmission of ATLV from simians to humans.