There was initial concern that the macaque would prove to be an inappropriate model. Dr Ronald Veazey, of the Tulane National Primate Research Center in New orleans, recalled: “What I heard from other investigators was: SIV in monkeys wasn’t going to be like HIV in humans.” This speculation was based on studies showing an immediate rapid decline in the levels of T cells in the gut of infected macaques. After only a week these levels dropped to about half of those recorded in infection-free macaques27. This was not thought to happen in people, suggesting that SIV was indeed significantly.
