Evidence for recombination in natural populations of porcine circovirus type 2 in Hong Kong and mainland China

Porcine circovirus type 2 (PCV2) belongs to the family Circoviridae, and is the causative agent of post-weaning multisystemic wasting syndrome (PMWS) in pigs. In this study, phylogenetic analyses of three complete PCV2 genomic sequences from Hong Kong suggest that natural recombination happened among different lineages of PCV2. A preliminary investigation of the parental strains of these potential recombinants was carried out using bootscanning. Statistical significance of this recombination event was tested and positions of the potential recombination breakpoints were estimated in a maximum-likelihood framework. The recombinant breakpoints were estimated to be located within the origin of replication (ori) and replicase (rep) gene of PCV2. Interestingly, several GenBank sequences of PCV2 in mainland China were found to have a recombination pattern similar to that of the potential PCV2 recombinants from Hong Kong, implying that this recombinant genotype might already be widespread within mainland China.