The creation of a genus

International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses

The International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses is a committee which authorizes and organizes the taxonomic classification of viruses. They have developed a universal taxonomic scheme for viruses and aim to describe all the viruses of living organisms. Members of the committee are considered to...

 Nyavirus was suggested in 2009 for two virus

Virus

A virus is a small infectious agent that can replicate only inside the living cells of organisms. Viruses infect all types of organisms, from animals and plants to bacteria and archaea...

es, Nyamanini virus (NYMV) and Midway virus (MIDWV). According to the suggestion, both viruses would be assigned to species

International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses

The International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses is a committee which authorizes and organizes the taxonomic classification of viruses. They have developed a universal taxonomic scheme for viruses and aim to describe all the viruses of living organisms. Members of the committee are considered to...

 of the same name (Nyamanini virus and Midway virus, respectively) that would constitute the genus.. No formal proposal for the creation of the genus or the two species has yet been forwarded to the International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses

International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses

The International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses is a committee which authorizes and organizes the taxonomic classification of viruses. They have developed a universal taxonomic scheme for viruses and aim to describe all the viruses of living organisms. Members of the committee are considered to...

 (ICTV).

Virology

NYMV and MDWV are two antigenically related viruses that were first isolated in 1957 and 1966 respectively. NYMV has been isolated from cattle egrets (species Bubulcus ibis) and tick

Tick

Ticks are small arachnids in the order Ixodida, along with mites, constitute the subclass Acarina. Ticks are ectoparasites , living by hematophagy on the blood of mammals, birds, and sometimes reptiles and amphibians...

s (species Argas walkerae) in Egypt

Egypt

Egypt , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, Arabic: , is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Southwest Asia. Egypt is thus a transcontinental country, and a major power in Africa, the Mediterranean Basin, the Middle East and the Muslim world...

, India

India

India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...

, Nigeria

Nigeria

Nigeria , officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a federal constitutional republic comprising 36 states and its Federal Capital Territory, Abuja. The country is located in West Africa and shares land borders with the Republic of Benin in the west, Chad and Cameroon in the east, and Niger in...

, South Africa

South Africa

The Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...

, and Thailand

Thailand

Thailand , officially the Kingdom of Thailand , formerly known as Siam , is a country located at the centre of the Indochina peninsula and Southeast Asia. It is bordered to the north by Burma and Laos, to the east by Laos and Cambodia, to the south by the Gulf of Thailand and Malaysia, and to the...

. MDWV has been isolated from tick of the genus Ornithodoros

Ornithodoros

Ornithodoros is a genus in the soft-bodied tick family, Argasidae. The Linnean name derives from ornithos and doros , meaning "bird" and "gift," respectively...

collected in Midway

Midway

Midway may refer to:*Midway , a place at a fair or circus where rides, entertainment, and booths are concentrated-Midway Atoll and the Battle of Midway:...

, Kure

Kure

Kure can refer to:*KURE, a radio station in Ames, Iowa*Kure Software Koubou, Japanese video game development company*Kure, Hiroshima , a city in Hiroshima prefecture, Japan**Kure Line, a rail line in the city...

 and Manana

Manana

Mānana Island is an uninhabited islet located off Kaupō Beach, near Makapuu at the eastern end of the Island of Oahu in the Hawaiian Islands. In the Hawaiian language, mānana means "buoyant"...

 islands and northern Honshu

Honshu

is the largest island of Japan. The nation's main island, it is south of Hokkaido across the Tsugaru Strait, north of Shikoku across the Inland Sea, and northeast of Kyushu across the Kanmon Strait...

, Japan

Japan

Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...

. Antibodies to this virus have been found in the black-tailed gulls (species Larus crassirostris) and black-crowned night herons (species Nycticorax nycticorax).

Their genomes are approximately 11.5 kilobases in length and contain 6 open reading frames. Of these, only two have been assigned a function: the putative nucleocapsid and RNA-dependent RNA polymerase. Their virons are enveloped, spherical, and measure 100-130 nm in diameter.