Saffold virus (SAFV) is a newly identified member of the genus Cardiovirus that belongs to the family Picornaviridae. The first SAFV was isolated from the stool sample of an 8-month-old female with fever of unknown origin in 1981 but its full genome was not sequenced until 2007 [1]. Since its discovery, SAFV infection has been reported globally including sites from Europe [2-4], Asia [5-9], North and South America [2, 10]. To date, SAFV has been found in stool samples from patients with acute diarrhoea and gastroenteritis [2, 3, 5], as well as in respiratory specimens associated with acute respiratory illnesses (ARIs) in children [6, 7, 10-12]. More recently, SAFV was deected in the CSF of children with meningoencephalitis-like symptoms, suggesting a role for the virus in central nervous system (CNS) disease [13, 14]. Serological surveys have indicated that SAFV infection occurred early in life and >90% of population over 2 years old were sero-positive for SAFV2-3 [3, 15]. Despite SAFVs being widely reported around the world, the pathogenicity, clinical manifestation and epidemiology of SAFV remains unknown.

Two species belong to the genus Cardiovirus, including Theilovirus and Encephalomyocarditis [16]. Members of the Theilovirus contain Theiler's murine encephalomyelitis virus (TMEV; primarily causes central nervous system (CNS) infections in rodents [16]), Vilyuisk human encephalomyelitis virus (VHEV; causing encephalomyelitis mainly among Yakut people near Vilyuy River in Siberia [16-18]) and SAFV [1, 16]. The Encephalomyocarditis viruses include encephalomyocarditis virus (EMCV), mengovirus, Maus Elberfeld virus and Columbia SK virus and these viruses normally infect mice and other animals [1, 16, 19].

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