Researchers discover organism that hunts and feeds on viruses

Researchers have discovered a new type of organism that essentially feeds on viruses. These organisms, known as virovorus, do not feed on viruses randomly, but practically hunt them down and base their diet on them.

The discovery was made by John DeLong of the University of Nebraska - Lincoln, who attempted to see if there are microbes that actively feed on viruses. He collected samples of marshes, isolated various microbes from them, and then added chlorine, a type of virus that infects green algae.

DeLong and his team then observed that a specific microbe (Halteria) began to feed on the chlorine and within 2 days increased its size by 15 times. No increase in the size of Halteria was observed in the samples where chlorine was not added.

Researchers hypothesize that there are many such organisms that feed solely on viruses to survive and will continue research because some of them could be used to fight specific infections in the human body.