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From: Lisa Toro 
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Sent: Thursday, January 29, 2004 7:29 PM
Subject: Fw: [Ugandacom] Aids virus killing Africa's lions-research



  
----- Original Message ----- 
From: Owor Kipenji 
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Sent: Thursday, January 29, 2004 6:15 PM
Subject: [Ugandacom] Aids virus killing Africa's lions-research


Aids virus killing Africa's lions - research 
By Nation Correspondent 
New evidence shows that Aids is not just killing millions of people in Africa but the lions as well, threatening the mere existence of the big cats in the continent.  

The dramatic reduction of animals in the continent from an estimated 230,000 in 1980 to about 18,000 now, set researchers to question whether the cats were just being decimated by the traditional threat of loss of natural habitat and hunting.  

Recently the New Scientist reported that the lion population had dropped to 23,000, but some researchers have long argued the figure is closer to 15,000. Some UN experts estimate it is between 12,000 and 18,000.  

However better research technology in virology and field research has indicated that a large number of the cats could be dying from Aids because their immune system has been destroyed by lion lentivirus, the lion version of HIV also called Feline Immunodeficiency Virus (FIV). 

In research finding which have been extensively reported in the western media, in December, it is the first time lentvirus - discovered 10 years ago in parts of Africa and Asia - has been blamed for the death of lions. 

A survey reported in the Journal of Virology as early as 1994 detected an endemic lentivirus in 90 per cent of over 400 free-ranging African and Asian lions (Panthera leo). However although there was no evidence of a clear mode of transmission at the time, seroconversion was found in two Serengeti lions. There was no evidence for maternal transmission as a major route of infections in lions.. 

The current research has been carried out for about six years in Botswana, a country of just 1.7 million people that has the highest recorded rate of HIV infection in the world - 40 per cent in some towns.  

British researcher Kate Nicholls and her Dutch partner Pieter Kat working at the Okavango Lion Conservation Project in Botswana saw clear parallels between human and lion Aids. 

According to a report in the Daily Telegraph and the Chicago Sun the duo successfully tracked a male and female lion to a zebra kill, they watched as the lioness, named Fixin, move a short distance away and started to roar.  

"We know these animals very well, and we know she has three cubs she is calling forward to feed," Kat had been quoted. But to the surprise of the mother and the researchers, said the Telegraph the cubs did not appear. "As the shadows of circling vultures flicked across the lioness' back, she stared in the direction her young should have come from, but they did not appear'  

But later in the day the three cubs were found, thin and listless with scrawny hind - quarters and matted, ropey coats. "These were healthy, bouncy cubs just a few weeks ago, and even though there is plenty of food here and plenty of water they are already this sick," Nicholls said in an interview.  

The duo had established that all the adults in the group had the lentivirus. "It is hard not to see the parallels between a human Aids victim wasting away and what we are seeing here," said Nicholls.  

Study towards lion Aids was first raised when it was discovered there were problems with reproduction and fertility among cats. In the research time, the couple identified 104 cubs born within the prides, but fewer than 10 reached adulthood.  

"Such a high mortality rate coupled with cases of pregnant lionesses losing cubs before birth and others failing to become pregnant raised our suspicions," Nicholls had said.  

FIV according to the Journal of Virology causes immunosuppression in the cats by destroying the CD4 T-cells subsets in infected hosts. Its isolates have been classified into five distinct subtypes: A, B, C, D, and E with subtypes B and D mainly found in Asia.  

Although a recent article in the local media downplayed FIV as a major problem insisting that the cats were being decimated by lack of habitat no clinical research has been done to determine the danger posed by the new virus. 

However, in the more endowed state of South Africa, the Wildlife Biological Resource Centre of the Endangered Wildlife Trust, together with the Lion Park, have embarked on a project of assisted reproductive technology, DNA analysis and disease screening of the lions.  

The project aims to develop assisted reproduction technology as a conservation tool for the African lion, to counteract in-breeding among lion prides, to analyse the DNA from all the lions in the park, and to screen them for the Feline Immunodeficiency Virus.  

The feline Aids virus affects only the big cats, and is transmitted through bite wounds during fights. It is one of the deadliest viruses in cats, and can decimate an entire pack.  

In an effort to highlight the plight of the African lion, South African recently launched the Natura Lion Mintmark gold coin. The one-ounce gold coin, depicting a lion and a lioness, will be displayed at the Lion Park in Johannesburg, where there is an ongoing breeding and research programme to save the lions. Only 500 of these coins will be minted worldwide.  

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