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Hepadnavirus infection in captive gibbons
R E Lanford1, D Chavez, R Rico-Hesse
1Department of Virology and Immunology, Southwest Regional Primate Research Center, Southwest Foundation for Biomedical Research, San Antonio, Texas 78227, USA. rlanford@icarus.sfbr.org
Abstract:
The recent isolation of a nonhuman primate hepadnavirus from woolly monkeys prompted an examination of other primates for potentially new hepadnaviruses. A serological analysis of 30 captive gibbons revealed that 47% were positive for at least one marker of ongoing or previous infection with a hepatitis B virus (HBV). The amino acid sequences of the core and surface genes of human and gibbon virus isolates were very similar. Phylogenetic analysis indicated that the gibbon isolates lie within the human HBV family, indicating that these HBV isolates most likely stem from infection of gibbons from a human source.