WHAT THE EVIDENCE SAYS
A synthesis identified 309,546 viral operational taxonomic units, 82.74% unclassified. Feeding guild was associated with some community differences, but phylogeny and sampling locality explained substantially more variation; shared diet was a weaker predictor of viral sharing.
WHY IT MATTERS / OUR READ
Surveillance design needs place, host history and consistent sampling, not only an animal's feeding category.
CAVEATS / UNCERTAINTY
Sequence detection does not demonstrate viable infection, spillover or disease; virome-library coverage is uneven and much of the taxonomy remains unresolved.
SOURCE
Nature Communications — Huang et al. (30 Oct 2026)
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