Abstract/Summary

The field of Virus Ecology has matured over the past 30 or so years. It has now gone mainstream and as such its impact can be felt across varied and diverse disciplines from biogeochemistry to primary healthcare. Consequently, Virus Ecology is a multidisciplinary field in which different disciplines of science combine to provide knowledge that helps in understanding the strategies used by different viruses for maintenance and perpetuation in their hosts. In addition, many epidemic-prone and severe infectious diseases in humans in the last decades have emerged from animals. Tracking of animal viruses is crucial not only for the control of such pathogens in their hosts and monitoring their evolutionary pathways but also for understanding mechanisms of zoonotic viral emergence to humans.