Comparative Metagenomics of Palearctic and Neotropical Avian Cloacal Viromes Reveal Geographic Bias in Virus Discovery.

Our understanding about viruses carried by wild animals is still scarce. The viral diversity of wildlife may be best described with discovery-driven approaches to the study of viral diversity that broaden research efforts towards non-canonical hosts and remote geographic regions. Birds have been key organisms in the transmission of viruses causing important diseases, and wild birds are threatened by viral spillovers associated with human activities.