To: mistermj who wrote (13046 ) 5/28/2007 3:28:00 PM From: neolib Read Replies (2) | Respond to of 36921 If we aren't supposed to eat animals...how come they are made out of meat? So they can tempt you in to wickedness and bring destruction on you: The 'Hunter' Theory The most commonly accepted theory is that of the 'hunter'. In this scenario, SIVcpz was transferred to humans as a result of chimps being killed and eaten or their blood getting into cuts or wounds on the hunter. Normally the hunter's body would have fought off SIV, but on a few occasions it adapted itself within its new human host and become HIV-1. The fact that there were several different early strains of HIV, each with a slightly different genetic make-up (the most common of which was HIV-1 group M), would support this theory: every time it passed from a chimpanzee to a man, it would have developed in a slightly different way within his body, and thus produced a slightly different strain. An article published in The Lancet in 2004, also shows how retroviral transfer from primates to hunters is still occurring even today. In a sample of 1099 individuals in Cameroon , they discovered to ten (1%) were infected with SFV (Simian Foamy Virus), an illness which, like SIV, was previously thought only to infect primates. All these infections were believed to have been acquired through the butchering and consumption of monkey and ape meat . Discoveries such as this have led to calls for an outright ban on bushmeat hunting to prevent simian viruses being passed to humans. From this link on the origin of AIDS/HIV (thought to be the result of wicked meat eaters).avert.org I'm not aware of any similar visitation brought on the human race by vegetarians, but perhaps there have been some.