Després, Guillaume David <br/><br/>
Emerging reoviruses: The next pandemic? 

 -  2023.<br/>							 
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<br/><br/> As the world is experiencing SARS-CoV-2, responsible for the Covid-19 pandemic, we can think about whether members of other families of viruses could possibly emerge. Can such viruses establish a worldwide distribution with consequences similar to SARS-CoV-2? One such threat is the possible emergence of pathogenic reoviruses, especially by zoonotic transmission. Reoviruses are ubiquitous viruses with a worldwide distribution, and various strains or isolates are found in many mammalian species and other vertebrates. When initially discovered, these viruses were called respiratory enteric orphan viruses (hence the acronym “reo”) to reflect the fact that they could not be clearly associated with any given disease. However, this is not necessarily the case for all of these viruses, as clearly shown for some of them in animals. Significantly, there have been numerous reports of zoonotic transmission, especially from bats to humans. In this manuscript, significant properties of reoviruses will first be briefly presented, followed by a review of available evidence for zoonotic transmission of pathogenic reoviruses to humans. Future work that appears to be needed for preparing for the possible emergence of these viruses will then be briefly discussed.