Vol. 11, Special Issue 7 (2022)

Author(s):
Farahanaz Rasool, Purshottam Singh, Ali Anwar, Najeeb Mughal, Sushil Kumar and Sabiya bashir

Abstract:
The official nomenclature of animals and plants is under the control of international zoological and botanical nomenclature committees, which have codes laying down rules and recommendations. The Fourth International Microbiological Congress held in Copenhagen in 1947 decided that viruses came within the field of jurisdiction of the microbiological code. The botanists, however, have taken an interest in the nomenclature of plant viruses and their International Congress in 1930 appointed an International Committee on plant virus classification and nomenclature. It was in 1966 when the first internationally organized initiative was taken to set up International Committee on Nomenclature of Viruses. This became the International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses (ICTV) in 1973 and first report on Nomenclature of viruses was published in 1971. Till now ten reports have been published time to time. The International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses (ICTV) is responsible for the classification of viruses into taxa. Importantly, the ICTV is currently not responsible for the nomenclature of viruses or their sub classification into strains, lineages, or genotypes. ICTV virus classification into taxa and taxa nomenclature rules are laid out in a code, the International Code of Virus Classification and Nomenclature (ICVCN). The most recent version of the Code makes it difficult for the unfamiliar reader to distinguish between viruses and taxa, thereby often giving the impression that certain Rules apply to viruses.