An epidemiological investigation of porcine circovirus type 2 and porcine circovirus type 3 infections in Tianjin, North China

Novel porcine circovirus type 3 (PCV3), first identified in the United States, has been detected in many other countries. Porcine circovirus is associated with postweaning multisystemic wasting syndrome, reproductive failure, congenital tremors, and other clinical symptoms. In this study, we established a double polymerase chain reaction assay for detecting both porcine circovirus type 2 (PCV2) and PCV3. This is the first study to detect and characterize the PCV3 genome in the Tianjin region of North China. We collected a total of 169 tissue samples from seven farms between 2016 and 2018. The PCV3-positive rate of all tissue samples was 37.3% (63/169) and the rate of PCV2 and PCV3 coinfection was 14.8% (25/169). PCV2 and PCV3 coinfections with more serious clinical symptoms were found in only three farms. We sequenced three PCV3 strains selected from tissue samples that were positively identified. The complete genome sequences of the three strains shared 97.6–99.4% nucleotide identities with the PCV3 strains in GenBank. Our results showed the extent of PCV3’s spread in Tianjin, and the need to further study PCV3’s pathobiology, epidemiology, isolation, and coinfection.