(sv40) A small (40 to 45 nm) DNA virus of the genus Polyomavirus, family Papovaviridae; the cause of seemingly inapparent infections in monkeys, especially rhesus, and a common contaminant of monkey cell cultures; the virus may cause inapparent infection in humans and may be excreted in stools of children for several weeks; it can produce fibrosarcoma in suckling hamsters, and transformation may occur in human diploid cells; it may also form "hybrid" virus in cells also infected with certain adenoviruses.

A species of POLYOMAVIRUS originally isolated from Rhesus monkey kidney tissue. It produces malignancy in human and newborn hamster kidney cell cultures.

A virus that infects some types of monkeys. It may also infect humans, and was found in some polio vaccines tested in the early 1960s. Although the virus has been shown to cause cancer in laboratory animals, there is no evidence that it causes cancer in people.

Isolated from Rhesus monkey kidney tissue; produces malignancy in human and newborn hamsters kidney cell cultures and tumors on inoculation into newborn hamsters.