Question: What is the rarest disease you found?

Hayley Free answered on 16 Jul 2025:

I don’t look for disease I look for viral DNA – the difference being that disease is the disorder usually featuring a range of symptoms which can be caused by pathogens such as viruses. I look for viral DNA which has been incorporated into the total DNA (called the genome) of an animal – frogs and toads. However, by looking for this viral DNA I have found evidence of many new viruses (called retroviruses) in their DNA!