New Leaves in the Growing Tree of Pestiviruses

Pestiviruses are a group of viruses of veterinary importance infecting livestock animals like pigs, cattle, and sheep, and also wildlife animals like wild boar and different deer species. While for decades only four classical species (Classical swine fever virus, Bovine viral diarrhea virus types 1 and 2, Border disease virus), and a few so-called atypical pestiviruses were known (e.g., Giraffe virus, Pronghorn virus, HoBi virus), a series of novel pestiviruses was identified in the last years (Bungowannah virus, Bat pestivirus, Norway rat pestivirus, Atypical porcine pestivirus, LINDA virus). The Australian Bungowannah virus could be isolated and further characterized by classical sequencing, but all the other latest novel pestiviruses were identified by metagenomics using next-generation sequencing technologies. Here, we describe these new viruses and their discovery and characterization. Differentiation is made between the occurrence of classical pestiviruses in new species and novel viruses or virus types.