picornavirus

noun

1. Any of the family Picornaviridae of RNA viruses, many of which are pathogenic, causing diseases such as polio, foot-and-mouth disease, and many varieties of the common cold.

   “Historically, interest in virology developed because these tiny microbes caused significant human and veterinary disease. One picornavirus, foot-and-mouth disease virus, was the first animal disease virus discovered; it was identified by Friedrich Loeffler and Paul Frosch in 1898 as a filterable, infectious agent that caused the dreaded foot-and-mouth disease. The discovery of poliovirus as the etiologic agent of poliomyelitis was reported 11 years later by Karl Landsteiner and Edwin Popper...”