Most virus detection methods are geared towards the detection of specific single viruses or just a few known targets, and lack the capability to uncover the novel viruses that cause emerging viral infections. To address this issue, we developed a computational method that identifies the conserved viral sequences at the genus level for all viral genomes available in GenBank, and established a virus probe library. The virus probes are used not only to identify known viruses but also for discerning the genera of emerging or uncharacterized ones.