Mobility oflarge parts of the human population, whether related to commercial necessity, touristic activities or to migration induced by war and social pressure, carried and carries the risk of spreading infections. Modem air travel effectively circumvents existing quarantine regulations as infected individuals thereby can reach almost every geographic location while stiIl in the incubation phase of the disease. Hence, infections previously restricted to distinet regions due to their strict association with non-human reservoirs or vectors can suddenly surface in non-endemic areas where...

Since the central theme of this book is the transmission of disease agents through the food chain, we will examine influenza viruses from this perspective. Influenza A viruses are found in humans, pigs, horses, sea mammals, and also in wild aquatic and domestic birds 23]. How are they spread? Between mammals, influenza is an airborne infection, but between birds, influenza can be either an airborne or waterborne infection. Influenza viruses of aquatic birds periodically transmit to domestic birds sometimes with catastrophic effects; this transmis sion can be either airborne or waterborne....

Rapid developments continue to take place in the research of viruses, the causative agents of infectious diseases in humans, animals, plants, invertebrates, protozoa, fungi, and bacteria. A still growing number of more than 30,000 viruses, virus strains, and subtypes are being tracked in various specialty laboratories and culture collections. In this situation of expansion and specialization, the International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses was founded to establish, refine and maintain a universal virus taxonomy system giving information to virologists about the characteristics of the...