Is it possible for FIV to mutate into HIV? if so how long would it take?

Answer 1

I very much doubt it, cross species mutation (in the way you appear to mean) is practically unknown;

Answer 2

FIV ALREADY CAN AND DOES CAUSE MILD COLDS IN HUMANS.

It has done since the late 1980s. The Humane Society (US equivalent of the RSPCA) enforced thorough sterilisation of any flat or house, in which a cat died of FIV. Like ripping out and burning all the carpeting, as a biohazard. I am not exaggerating. Full-strength bleach (the kind you have to wear a gas-mask for) for non-carpeted surfaces. Removal and burning of draperies. This happened to an ex of mine. The Humane Society came to her place, and 'nuked' it.

The rate of viral mutation is staggering. Viri ('viruses' is incorrect, though in common usage) adapt and mutate at rates with which virtually no known organism can compete.

Here's a clue on what I mean:

HOW THE HIV INFECTION TURNS INTO FULL-BLOWN AIDS:
A human is infected with one of the (several known) strains of HIV. The human immune system fights back by making antibodies. The retro-virus mutates, so the immune-system has to make DIFFERENT antibodies. Repeat, for anywhere from a few months to a couple of decades.
Eventually, there are literally MILLIONS of different strains of HIV in the patient, and his/her immune system can't keep up. A person who has full-blown AIDS is infected with millions of mutations of the initial virus, and his/her immune system is GONE.

Same goes for FIV, Simian IV, Ape IV, and any other Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome on the planet.

Answer 3

While there is an increased mutation frequency of Feline Immunodeficiency Virus (FIV) lacking Functional deoxyuridine-Triphosphatase, there is at present no evidence that such a mutation, in and of itself would cause FIV to mutate to HIV.

Perhaps if one were to study the rates of mutation of other feline viruses to human viruses, a statistical model could be constructed.

Answer 4

Eventually. In a couple hundred thousand years ?

Actually, those viruses (FIV, HIV, and other immunodefiency viruses) are probably already interelated. From the study of their RNA, it has been proposed that FIV (which infects other felines besides domestic cats) is a very old virus. In some lion populations in Africa, the infection rate is as high as 85% of individuals. But they have adapted to the virus and live very well with it. In humans, the virus is fairly new (estimated at 200 years old).

Even in flu, which is known to relatively easily infect different species, a chain of infection involving birds, pigs and humans is necessary to produce a virus which can be transmitted from human to human.

I would not be worried about getting HIV from a cat with FIV. Many people live with FIV-infected cats (I have), and none of them have turned HIV-positive from that.

Answer 5

To assume a particular direction AND a target for evolution, you are placing remarkably strict constraints.

Mutations are random. For a mutation to remain viable is very low. To assume the string of mutations needed to go toward both a specific host AND a specific genetic sequence (that of HIV) would make this incredibly low. It took many many years for the primate version of HIV to jump species and be viable in humans, even with humans being so closely genetically similar to the primates it was infecting.