Virus Taxonomy

Virus taxonomy refers to the internationally binding naming of viruses, virus families and virus genera. The decision on different taxa is discussed and decided by an international body, the International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses (ICTV), an attempt to systematically and uniformly organize the diversity of viral and subviral entities (including prions and retrotransposons) based on the taxonomy of plants or animals. It must not be confused with the broader concept of virus classification, in which various properties of viruses can be used for classification (for example, only genome structure, Baltimore classification, host species, type of transmission, etc.).In the currently valid publication of the ICTV (8th Report 2004), many, otherwise perhaps common terms are not found, since no uniform opinion could yet be found on their taxonomic classification. For the recognised criteria of taxonomic classification, see ICTV. https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virus-Taxonomie