They love being petted and snuggling up close, or sitting in a window, sunning and snoozing. FIV stands for Feline Immunodeficiency Virus. They are both retroviruses. The other familiar lentivirus to all of us is HIV, which causes AIDS in humans. So, humans are not alone in having a virus that affects the immune system.
Humans are, in fact, relatively new to the immunodeficiency virus scene.
This type of virus was present in horses, monkeys and felines long before the human version appeared on our planet. 84 percent of Serengeti lions harbor FIV and the virus has been identified in 25 species of cats around the globe from cougars in Wyoming to snow leopards in the Himalayas. It appears that felines have gradually developed the ability to live with the FIV virus for long periods of time, and that's why we should start looking at Malcolm and Simon and their friends with FIV in a new light. Living with FIV FIV is a cat-only disease. You cannot catch FIV from your pet.