PRJNA577578
Freshwater and Sediment metagenomes Raw sequence reads
Water is a prerequisite for life. As a consequence, in climates with seasonally limited precipitation animals congregate at high densities at scarce water sources. We hypothesize that viruses will utilise the regularity of congregation and high host density to increase their populations. However, this would require that viruses are able to contaminate water sources at the appropriate time and remain stable once shed. Therefore, water vectored viruses would be predicted to 1. react to physiological cues, such as a physiological stress, in the host species that would be expected to trigger viral shedding at times of water scarcity 2. have limited host specificity to maximize the number of animals infected at a water source 3. evolve traits permitting the retention of their infectivity. Here we show that equine herpesviruses fulfil these predictions in water derived from waterholes in East Africa and Central Asia supporting the hypothesis that water can act as an abiotic viral vector