Prevalence and genetic analysis of porcine circovirus type 2 (PCV2) and type 3 (PCV3) between 2018 and 2020 in central China

Porcine circovirus type 2 (PCV2) is the causative agent of porcine circovirus-associated diseases (PCVAD), causing substantial economic losses to the swine industry worldwide. PCV3, as a recently discovered virus, is associated with porcine dermatitis, nephropathy syndrome, reproductive failure, congenital tremors, and other clinical symptoms. To further investigate the epidemic profile and genetic diversity of the two viruses, a total of 198 samples from swine at various growth stages suspected for PCVAD on 55 different pig farms between 2018 and 2020 were analyzed for presence of PCV2 and PCV3 by using a multiplex real-time PCR assay. Among the 198 samples, 113 (57.07%) and 72 (36.36%) were positive for PCV2 and PCV3 respectively, and 39 (19.7%) were positive for PCV2 and PCV3 co-infection. Subsequently, whole genome sequences of 34 PCV2 and 19 PCV3 strains were obtained from 30 and 19 clinical samples, respectively. Of these, 8 PCV2 strains belonged to PCV2a, 10 belonged to PCV2b and 16 belonged to PCV2d, indicating PCV2d was the predominant PCV2 genotype circulating in central China. Furthermore, co-infection of different PCV2 genotype strains was identified in three samples (JZ-4, KF-2 and JY-1), and a cross-recombination was found in the ORF2 region of the sequenced 13 PCV2d strains whose putative parental strains were LN6/1999 (MF278777) and MEX/41238/2014 (KT795287) strains. The phylogenetic analysis of PCV3 showed high nucleotide identity (>98%) among sequences obtained in this study and reference sequences. These data will aid our understanding of the molecular epidemiology and evolution of PCV2 and PCV3.