A survey of the relationships among the viruses not considered arboviruses, vertebrates, and arthropods

Abstract

No single group of organisms demonstrates more extensive and diverse associations with animal viruses than the phylum Arthropoda. Compared with the well-recognized relationship found in arboviruses, however, most of the atypical arthropod-vertebrate relationships of the viruses normally not considered arboviruses have received much less attention, as they remain in the marginal areas of interest for most researchers in animal virology, veterinary medicine, medical entomology, and invertebrate pathology. However, this comprehensive review of the information gathered from several branches of virology by profession reveals highly valuable information potentially useful in the fields of research ranging from investigations of the mode of transmission of poorly understood or emerging viral diseases to studies of the evolution of biological transmission of animal viruses by arthropod vectors. The observations and data obtained for the animal virus relationships with arthropods and vertebrates outside the boundaries of arboviruses, in turn, can be used to reexamine more closely the definition of arboviruses. With increasing number of reports challenging one of the basic tenets of the definition of arbovirus (requirement of viremia in vertebrate host) and others describing virus-host relationships that complicate the definition of arbovirus, the accumulated information clearly demonstrates the difficulty of defining the boundaries of arboviruses.