Detection and Genomic Characterization of Canine Circovirus in Iran

Farzad Beikpour,Salman Zafari,Linda Amarachi Ndiana,Alireza Sazmand,Gianvito Lanave,Vito Martella,Roberta Cardone,Seyed Masoud Zolhavarieh,Farzad Nemati,Reza Faraji,Francesco Pellegrini,Paolo Capozza,Nicola Decaro

doi:10.3390/ani12040507

Abstract

Simple SummaryDuring the last decade, canine circovirus (CaCV) has been repeatedly reported in domestic dogs with and without acute enteritis. Here we report the detection and full genome characterization of CaCV strains from non-diarrheic dogs in Iran. The results showed the circulation of the virus in this country, with Iranian strains segregating from the CaCVs detected in other countries.Canine circovirus (CaCV) is a single-stranded DNA virus that globally circulates in dogs and wild carnivores. Although the pathogenic potential of the virus has not been fully understood yet, CaCV has been suggested to exacerbate the clinical course of other canine viral infections but also to circulate in dogs without clinical signs. In this study, we carried out real-time PCR assays to detect enteric pathogens from 156 canine rectal swabs collected from dogs without enteritis in 3 different regions in Iran. A total of 14 samples tested positive for CaCV and full-length genome sequences were obtained from 6 of the detected strains. Sequence and phylogenetic analyses showed that, despite the distance between the different sample collection sites, all Iranian CaCV strains were closely related and formed a separate clade from extant CaCVs. The present study shows that CaCV is circulating in non-diarrheic dogs in Iran, thus highlighting the need for further epidemiological investigations in Iranian domestic and wild carnivores.

Highlights

The family Circoviridae comprises viruses with covalently closed, circular, singlestranded DNA genomes, including the smallest known autonomously replicating, capsid-encoding animal pathogens [1]
The demographic and clinical data of the 14 infected dogs are shown in Table 1, which shows that Canine circovirus (CaCV) infected dogs had no enteric signs
We report the preliminary data on the detection and full-genome characterization of CaCVs in swab samples collected from non-diarrheic dogs in Iran

Summary

Introduction

The family Circoviridae comprises viruses with covalently closed, circular, singlestranded DNA (ssDNA) genomes, including the smallest known autonomously replicating, capsid-encoding animal pathogens [1]. CaCV and genetically related CVs have been detected in other canids, including wolves and foxes [12,13,14,15,16]. The ecology of CaCV in its animal hosts remains unexplored, and it is still unclear whether the virus can infect other animal hosts and what the modalities of transmission are between domestic and wild canids. Like other ssDNA viruses, CVs show a high genetic plasticity that might theoretically explain the ability of CaCV to cross the species barrier [13]. Its pathogenic potential remains unclear, CaCV has been associated with respiratory and gastrointestinal disease and in some cases with systemic disease involving vasculitis [2,7,17,18,19]. The full-length genome sequences of 6 out of 14 detected strains were determined to gather information on the genetic heterogeneity of the CaCV strains

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Conclusion