animal virus
1
3.6
- noun
- /ˈænɪməl ˈvaɪrəs/
- Specialized
:
virus animal
- This is only the second time an animal virus has been described to have a gene like this; the first is in Epstein-Barr virus, a human herpes virus.
- human and animal virus
Examples
-
The researcher identified several animal viruses that could potentially spread to humans.
-
Ah, I see, Katie—so you haven't checked the science that says vaccines contain toxic substances—such as mercury, bits of other animal viruses, and other strange chemicals.
Blog text (25) -
"The old dogma is that ASF is the only animal virus that doesn't stimulate the production of neutralizing antibodies, but that's just not true," says Rock.
Academic text (1996) -
Veterinarians are studying ways to treat animal viruses that affect livestock health.
-
The document outlined protocols for handling samples of animal viruses in the laboratory.
Synonyms
857
3.2
A very small germ that can only live inside cells and often causes illness
How Infectious
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning 'a virus that infects animals' is directly derivable from combining 'animal' (an organism with movement/nervous system) and 'virus' (a microscopic infectious agent). This noun–noun compound follows regular compositional rules in English and similar transparent patterns exist cross‑linguistically, so a B1 learner who knows both words would understand it.
Etymology
Animal virus combines the words animal and virus; imagine a tiny germ living in a cow, pig, or bird. This picture of a germ moving between animals, and sometimes 'jumping' to people, explains why animal virus means 'a virus that infects animals'.