Epidemiology and genetic characteristics of pigeon circovirus (PiCV) in eastern China

Pigeon circovirus (PiCV) is one of four viruses in the family Circoviridae that affect young pigeons around the world. We collected 158 serum or tissue samples from six poultry farms in eastern China to investigate the prevalence and genetic characteristics of PiCV in Chinese pigeons. We tested for PiCV using a PCR assay and found that PiCV was present in 80.7 % (88/109) of diseased pigeons and 63.3 % (31/49) of healthy pigeons; overall, 75.3 % (119/158) of samples were PiCV positive. One PiCV-positive sample from each poultry farm was randomly chosen for amplification of the complete PiCV genome by inverse primer PCR (IP-PCR). The six genomic PiCV strains were designated as AHBZ (KJ704801), HBLF-E2 (KJ704802), JSJN (KJ704803), NJPK-21 (KJ704804), SDDZ (KJ704805) and SHWH-AB4 (KJ704806). We compared these new PiCV genomes to six publicly available PiCV genomes and found that the Rep and Cap genes had sequence identity ranging from 93.8 % to 100 % and 79.1 % to 100 %, respectively. In a phylogenetic analysis, PiCV and eight other members of the genus Circovirus were sister to chicken anemia virus (CAV), the only member of genus Gyrovirus. The results of this study provide evidence that PiCV is present in Chinese pigeons at a high rate and that PiCV is a viral lineage that is distinct from CAV.