OmniVira: a knowledgebase of source-linked evidence on viral spillover and cross-species transmission

Abstract

Zoonotic viral emergence poses persistent challenges to global health, yet evidence relevant to spillover and cross-species transmission is dispersed across surveillance, epidemiological, experimental, mechanistic, and genomic studies. Here, we present OmniVira (https://omnivira.org/), a curated knowledgebase that transforms literature-derived findings into structured, traceable, and reusable OmniVira Evidence (OVE) records. OmniVira implements an auditable article–evidence framework linking individual findings and supporting text to normalized virus, host, and geographic entities, and relevant biological context. A domain-specific ontology organizes 14 evidence types into five categories: Zoonotic Surveillance, Transmission Evidence, Experimental Infection, Functional Mechanism, and Genomic Evolution. The platform integrates ontology-guided curation, large language model-assisted literature screening and candidate extraction, automated consistency checks, and curator review of flagged or ambiguous records, enabling daily updates. As of 4 August 2026, OmniVira contained 8072 publicly retrievable OVE records derived from 2623 source articles, spanning 60 ICTV virus families, 55 host orders, and 121 countries. Its responsive interface supports evidence-centred retrieval, source-text verification, and exploration of linked virus–host–literature relationships across desktop and mobile browsers. OmniVira provides a transparent, context-preserving resource for systematic comparison and synthesis of evidence related to zoonotic viral emergence and cross-species transmission.