Abstract
Simple SummaryPorcine circovirus 3 (PCV-3) was first identified in pigs in the USA and was subsequently detected in several other countries, including Brazil. PCV-3 can be associated with diseases in pigs. To date, there are only a few reports of PCV-3 in wild boars worldwide. This study aimed to investigate the presence of PCV-3 in wild boars in Paraná state, Brazil. The results revealed that PCV-3 was present in the serum and lungs of the sampled boars. The complete genome of the PCV-3a strain was determined and compared with other PCV-3 strains around the world. Phylogenetic analysis has shown a close relationship to the strains already described in domestic and wild pigs. At this moment, there is no evidence that PCV-3 causes disease in wild boars. However, the monitoring of circulation of PCV-3 in wild boars is important for pig industry biosecurity because these animals share pathogens with domestic pigs.Porcine circovirus 3 (PCV-3) was identified in domestic pigs worldwide. Although PCV-3 has also been detected in wild boars, information regarding its circulation in this free-living animal species is scarce. To investigate PCV-3 occurrence in free-living wild boars in Brazil, 70 serum samples collected between January 2017 and June 2019 in Paraná state, Brazil were analyzed by PCR assay. Amplicons measuring 330 bp in length were amplified in seven (10.0%) of the serum samples and confirmed to be PCV3-specific by nucleotide (nt) sequencing. As the amplified products from the serum samples yielded only intermediate levels of viral DNA, lung samples from the seven PCR-positive wild boars were also evaluated by PCR. Of these samples, five lung samples were positive and provided high levels of viral DNA. The three lung samples that presented the highest levels of viral DNA were selected for amplification and sequencing of the whole PCV-3 genome. The three full-length sequences obtained were grouped in PCV-3 clade “a”, and the sequences exhibited 100% nucleotide similarity among them. The PCV-3 field strains of this study showed nucleotide and amino acid similarities of 98.5–99.8% and 98.8–100%, respectively, with whole-genome PCV-3 sequences from around the world.
Highlights
Porcine circovirus 3 (PCV-3) belongs to the genus Circovirus and was recently identified in the USA through metagenomic analysis [1,2]
ORF1 encodes the replicase protein (Rep), which is composed of 296–297 amino acids; this open reading frames (ORFs) is the most conserved region of the genome and shares 55% aa identity with the Rep of porcine circovirus 2 (PCV2) [1]
ORF2 is located on the negative strand and encodes the capsid protein (Cap), the only constituent of the viral capsid; it is composed of 214 aa, sharing approximately 26–37%
Summary
Porcine circovirus 3 (PCV-3) belongs to the genus Circovirus and was recently identified in the USA through metagenomic analysis [1,2]. PCV-3 has been reported in several countries of South America, Europe, and Asia [3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10]. The PCV-3 genome consists of 1999–2001 nucleotides (nt) of circular, single-stranded. ORF1 encodes the replicase protein (Rep), which is composed of 296–297 amino acids (aa); this ORF is the most conserved region of the genome and shares 55% aa identity with the Rep of porcine circovirus 2 (PCV2) [1]. ORF2 is located on the negative strand and encodes the capsid protein (Cap), the only constituent of the viral capsid; it is composed of 214 aa, sharing approximately 26–37%
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