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This third edition of the Encyclopedia of Virology is being
published nine years after the second edition, a period which has
seen enormous growth both in our understanding of virology and in
our recognition of the viruses themselves, many of which were unknown
when the second edition was prepared. Considering viruses affecting
human hosts alone, the worldwide epidemic of severe acute respiratory
syndrome (SARS), caused by a previously unknown coronavirus, led
to the discovery of other human coronaviruses such as HKU1 and NL63.
As many as seven chapters are devoted to the AIDS epidemic and to
human immunodeficiency viruses. In addition, the development of new
molecular technologies led to the discovery of viruses with no obvious
disease associations, such as torque-teno virus (one of the most
ubiquitous viruses in the human population), human bocavirus, human
metapneumovirus, and two new human polyomaviruses.
Other new developments of importance to human virology have included
the introduction of a virulent strain of West Nile virus from Israel
to North America in 1999. Since that time the virus has become established
in mosquito, bird and horse populations throughout the USA, the Caribbean
and Mexico as well as the southern regions of Canada.
As in the two previous editions, we have tried to include information about all known species of viruses infecting bacteria, fungi, invertebrates, plants and vertebrates, as well as descriptions of
related topics in virology such as antiviral drug development, cell-
and antibody-mediated immunity, vaccine development, electron microscopy
and molecular methods for virus characterization and identification.
Many chapters are devoted to the considerable economic importance
of virus diseases of cereals, legumes, vegetable crops, fruit trees
and ornamentals, and new approaches to control these diseases. General
issues such as the origin, evolution and phylogeny of viruses are
also discussed as the history of virology.
To cover all these subjects and new developments, we have had to
increase the size of the Encyclopedia from three to five volumes.
Throughout this work we have relied upon the 8th Report of the International
Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses published in 2005, which lists more
than 6,000 viruses classified into some 2,000 virus species distributed
among more than 390 different genera and families. In recent years
the criteria for placing viruses in different taxa have shifted away
from traditional serological methods and increasingly rely upon molecular
techniques, particularly the nucleotide sequence of the virus genome.
This has changed many of the previous groupings of viruses, and is
reflected in this third edition.
Needless to say, a work of this magnitude
has involved many expert scientists, who have given generously of
their time to bring it to fruition. We extend our grateful thanks
to all contributors and section editors for their excellent and timely
contributions.
Brian WJ Mahy
Marc HV van Regenmortel
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