Traditional viral detection methods, such as virus isolation, are often hindered by the inability to grow virus in cell culture. The divergence of many viruses and absence of a common viral marker gene makes detection difficult using standard molecular techniques including PCR and microarray as they are frequently targetspecific through the use of specific primers, probes and/ or antibodies. Viral metagenomics is a sequence, and culture-independent approach that has proven to be a valuable tool for the investigation not only of diseases of unknown etiology but also of the complete viral flora of different reservoirs and vectors. By providing insights into a wide range of unknown potential pathogens and revealing novel aspects of biodiversity, metagenomics is able to detect and characterise novel pathogens [4] [5] [6] .