Identification and Genomic Characterization of Two Novel Porcine
Circovirus Like Virus Strains Associated with Severe Diarrhoea and
Hemorrhagic Enteritis in Piglets in China
Abstract
The diarrhoea of pigs, in particular, for the newborns, is very harmful
to the pig industry. Porcine circovirus-like virus (Po-Circo-like (PCL)
virus) is a circular replication-associated protein (Rep)-encoding
single-stranded (CRESS) DNA virus. Two PCL virus strains, with severe
diarrhoea and hemorrhagic enteritis, have been found in two different
pig farms in Guangdong province, China. Subsequently, the full genomes
of two strains (PCL virus GD06 and PCL virus GD09) were sequenced. The
two PCL viruses contains 3942 nucleotides and 3925 nucleotides, which
vary from the genomes of other PCL virus strains with 3912, 3923, and
3942 nucleotides. Besides, the nucleotide identities between two strains
and other strains of PCL viruses and Bo-Circo-like virus/CH were
78%-89%. A multiple sequence alignment of these strains showed a
similarity of 86.2%-94.4% for the Rep gene sequence and 89.4%-97.7%
for the Rep protein sequence. This study found that 9.5% (4/42) of
diarrhoea samples and 11.8% (2/17) of pig farms were positive for PCL
virus, suggesting that PCL virus may already be widespread in Pig farms
in China. Further research on the pathogenicity and epidemiology of PCL
virus is required.