New viruses from Lacerta monticola (Serra da Estrela, Portugal): further evidence for a new group of nucleo-cytoplasmic large deoxyriboviruses.

Lizard erythrocytic viruses (LEVs) have previously been described in Lacerta monticola from Serra da Estrela, Portugal. Like other known erythrocytic viruses of heterothermic vertebrates, these viruses have never been adapted to cell cultures and remain uncharacterized at the molecular level. In this study, we made attempts to adapt the virus to cell cultures that resulted instead in the isolation of a previously undetected Ranavirus closely related to FV3.