Poxviridae

Poxviruses have been relegated to the position of relatively unimportant human pathogens after the global eradication of small pox.

They are the largest viruses known and they are very easy to isolate which can be grown in a variety of cell cultures. They produce pocks on the chick chorioallantoic membrane (CAM). These pocks are characteristic, giving their name to all forms of infectious disease "a dose of the pox".

Picture extracted: http://www.stanford.edu/group/virus/pox/2000/index.html

References to text (Poxviridae): http://visp.scripps.edu/pox/PoxWebPages/PoxBackground.aspx http://microbewiki.kenyon.edu/index.php/Poxviridae