Universal Virus Database

In 2001 ICTVdB moved to the Biosphere 2 Center, the Western Campus of the Earth Institute, Columbia University of New York USA. The directory of ICTVdB is an Index of Viruses, a list of approved virus names linked to virus descriptions coded from information in Virus Taxonomy: The Seventh Report of the International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses, van Regenmortel et al., and includes updates subsequently approved by ICTV.

It also incorporates the plant virus database VIDEdB and is illustrated with EM pictures, diagrams and images of symptoms contributed by virologists around the world. The purpose of the ICTV database is to provide information about viruses and is an interactive database that people can use. ICTVdB uses a decimal code to present, on the Web searchable descriptions of virus isolates, species, genera, families, orders, images of many viruses, and links to genomic and protein databanks.