Family: Polyomaviridae

Genus: Gammapolyomavirus

 

Distinguishing features

Members infect only birds. Some cause severe illness and even death, but oncogenicity has not been observed. 

Virion

See discussion under family description

Genome organization and replication

See discussion under family description

Biology

See discussion under family description

Species demarcation criteria

  1. Sufficient information on the natural host
  2. Observed genetic distance from a member of the most closely related species is >15% nucleotide difference for the LTAg coding sequence
  3. When two polyomaviruses exhibit <15% observed genetic distance (as defined above), biological properties may be of additional critical importance (e.g. host specificity, disease association, tissue tropism, etc.)