First Identification and Phylogenetic Analysis of Porcine Circovirus Type 4 in Fur Animals in Hebei, China
Yanjin Wang,
Shijie Yan,
Yuting Ji,
Yujie Yang,
Ping Rui,
Zengjun Ma,
Hua-Ji Qiu,
Tao Song
Affiliations
Yanjin Wang
Key Laboratory of Preventive Veterinary Medicine of Hebei, College of Animal Science and Technology, Hebei Normal University of Science and Technology, Qinhuangdao 066004, China
Shijie Yan
Key Laboratory of Preventive Veterinary Medicine of Hebei, College of Animal Science and Technology, Hebei Normal University of Science and Technology, Qinhuangdao 066004, China
Yuting Ji
Key Laboratory of Preventive Veterinary Medicine of Hebei, College of Animal Science and Technology, Hebei Normal University of Science and Technology, Qinhuangdao 066004, China
Yujie Yang
Key Laboratory of Preventive Veterinary Medicine of Hebei, College of Animal Science and Technology, Hebei Normal University of Science and Technology, Qinhuangdao 066004, China
Ping Rui
Key Laboratory of Preventive Veterinary Medicine of Hebei, College of Animal Science and Technology, Hebei Normal University of Science and Technology, Qinhuangdao 066004, China
Zengjun Ma
Key Laboratory of Preventive Veterinary Medicine of Hebei, College of Animal Science and Technology, Hebei Normal University of Science and Technology, Qinhuangdao 066004, China
Hua-Ji Qiu
State Key Laboratory of Veterinary Biotechnology, Harbin Veterinary Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Harbin 150069, China
Tao Song
Key Laboratory of Preventive Veterinary Medicine of Hebei, College of Animal Science and Technology, Hebei Normal University of Science and Technology, Qinhuangdao 066004, China
A novel circovirus called porcine circovirus type 4 (PCV4) was recently detected in pigs suffering from severe clinical diseases in Hunan province, China. There are few reports on the origin and evolution of PCV4, although some researchers have conducted epidemiological investigations of PCV4 and found that PCV4 is widespread in pigs. Based on the previous study, we detected PCV2 in farmed foxes and raccoon dogs with reproductive failure. To explore whether the PCV4 genome also exists in fur animals, we detected 137 cases admitted from fur animal farms in Hebei China between 2015 and 2020, which were characterized by inappetence, lethargy, depression, abortion, and sterility. The overall infection rate of PCV4 was 23.36% (32/137), including 20.37% (22/108) for raccoon dogs, 18.75% (3/16) for foxes, and 53.85% (7/13) for minks. Finally, five raccoon dog-origin PCV4 strains and one fox-origin PCV4 strain were sequenced in our study, whose nucleotide identities with other representative PCV4 strains varied from 96.5% to 100%. Phylogenetic analysis based on the complete genomes of PCV4 strains indicated a close relationship with those of PCV4 strains identified from pigs. To our knowledge, this is the first study to detect PCV4 in fur animals. Interestingly, we also identified PCV4 in a mixed farm (feeding pigs and raccoon dogs at the same time). In summary, our findings extend the understanding of the molecular epidemiology of PCV4 and provide new evidence for its cross-species transmission.
