Genetic characterization of porcine circovirus type 2 in the Korean wild boar population

Abstract

The porcine circovirus type 2 (PCV2) has reached very high levels in the pig population in South Korea and throughout the world since it was first described in the late 1990s. In this study, we found that the prevalence of PCV2 in the Korean wild boar population was 4.98% (91/1825). Interestingly, 19 PCV2 ORF2 sequences that could be completely sequenced showed that they belonged only to genotype PCV2b, subgroup 1A/B (n=16) and 1C (n=3). We suggest that sites potentially under positive selection are responsible for the antigenicity changes and phenotypic switch patterns in the capsid gene of 55 PCV2s from Korean domestic pigs, but the sites potentially under positive selection in the 19 PCV2 ORF2 genes from Korean wild boar are not responsible for antigenicity.

Keywords: PCV2; PMAL; Phylogeny.