Does anyone know exactly why HIV doesn't affect animals and only affects humans? Scientific answers only!?

Question

No answers like " Because the name is HUMAN immuno deficiency virus"

Thanks

Answer 1

There is a feline immunodeficiency virus (FIV). It causes an infectious disease in domestic cats and cheetahs similar to human immunodeficiency virus (HIV infection) in humans.
http://animalhealthchannel.com/fiv/

Answer 2

Viruses work in two ways, usually; they infect a population of vectors without making them sick, and then they also infect other populations while making them sick. There's a lot of conjecture about symbiotic evolution, but in essence, the human body isn't used to the AIDS virus, and it launches an immune response, leading to all sorts of problems. It doesn't affect all animals because, in some cases, like chimpanzees, they can carry the disease without mounting an immune response, and in others, the virus and the animal are simply too different. (For example, leprosy can only grow in armadillos and humans; other animals have a body temperature that's too high for the bacteria to grow.) It might not have the right parameters for the virus to grow and infect; therefore, no infection.

Answer 3

Monkeys have a strain called SIV (simian immunodef...), and as mentioned there are similar viruses that infect other species as well. For research purposes a researcher at Univ. of KS developed SHIV, that I believe may be able to infect both humans and monkey- not totally sure though.

For HIV to infect a person it has to attach to certain receptors on the CD4 cell and different species do not have the same receptors.

Answer 4

Last time it checked it was derived from monkey's correct me if i am wrong but Monkey's are still animals aren't they?