Research overview: feline immunodeficiency virus lineages and population structure in African lions

African lions carry their own feline immunodeficiency virus, FIV-Ple, which exists as several deeply divergent lineages that often co-circulate within and among populations. This overview synthesizes research mapping these viral clades across the continent, the surprising finding of multiple-strain co-infection in individual lions, and how viral genetics mirror lion population history and movement. It considers transmission largely through biting during territorial and mating conflict, differences in prevalence between populations such as Serengeti and Botswana, and what high seroprevalence means for lion health. The aim is to explain why FIV-Ple is both a natural marker of lion social structure and a possible sublethal stressor, and how its study informs broader questions about lentivirus co-evolution with wild felids.