TY - JOUR AU - Sintasath, David M. AU - Wolfe, Nathan D. AU - LeBreton, Matthew AU - Jia, Hongwei AU - Garcia, Albert D. AU - Diffo, Joseph Le Doux AU - Tamoufe, Ubald AU - Carr, Jean K. AU - Folks, Thomas M. AU - Mpoudi-Ngole, Eitel AU - Burke, Donald S. AU - Heneine, Walid AU - Switzer, William M. T1 - Simian T-Lymphotropic Virus Diversity among Nonhuman Primates, Cameroon T2 - Emerging Infectious Disease journal PY - 2009 VL - 15 IS - 2 SP - 175 SN - 1080-6059 AB - Cross-species transmission of retroviruses is common in Cameroon. To determine risk for simian T-cell lymphotropic virus (STLV) transmission from nonhuman primates to hunters, we examined 170 hunter-collected dried blood spots (DBS) from 12 species for STLV. PCR with generic tax and group-specific long terminal repeat primers showed that 12 (7%) specimens from 4 nonhuman primate species were infected with STLV. Phylogenetic analyses showed broad diversity of STLV, including novel STLV-1 and STLV-3 sequences and a highly divergent STLV-3 subtype found in Cercopithecus mona and C. nictitans monkeys. Screening of peripheral blood mononuclear cell DNA from 63 HTLV-seroreactive, PCR-negative hunters did not identify human infections with this divergent STLV-3. Therefore, hunter-collected DBS can effectively capture STLV diversity at the point where pathogen spillover occurs. Broad screening using this relatively easy collection strategy has potential for large-scale monitoring of retrovirus cross-species transmission among highly exposed human populations. KW - Dried blood spots KW - retrovirus KW - simian T-lymphotropic virus KW - research KW - Cameroon DO - 10.3201/eid1502.080584 UR - https://wwwnc.cdc.gov/eid/article/15/2/08-0584_article ER - End of Reference