"Herpesvirus" was established as a genus in 1971 in the first report of the ICTV. This genus consisted of 23 viruses among 4 groups. In 1976, a second ICTV report was released in which this genus was elevated to the family level — the "herpetoviridae". Because of possible confusion with viruses derived from reptiles, the family name was changed in the third report (1979) to "herpesviridae". In this report, the family "Herpesviridae" was divided into 3 subfamilies ("alphaherpesvirinae", "betaherpesvirinae" and "gammaherpesvirinae") and 5 unnamed genera; 21 viruses were recognized as members of the family.