Tong Panpan, Wang Zunbao, Dang Yueyi, Zhang Lei, Song Guangwei, Song Xiaozhen, Pan Juanjuan, Kuang Ling, Li Junhui, Lu Gang, Xie Jinxin
Xinjiang Key Laboratory of Herbivore Drug Research and Creation, College of Veterinary Medicine, Xinjiang Agricultural University, Urumqi, 830052, China.
College of Veterinary Medicine, Jilin University, Changchun, 130062, China.
Virus Genes. 2024 Jun;60(3):314-319. doi: 10.1007/s11262-024-02066-7. Epub 2024 Mar 25.
Kirkovirus (kirV), a seemingly novel virus family, has been found in horses and donkeys. The study's objectives are to investigate the presence of the virus in swine. In this study, donkey-like kirV was detected in rectal swabs of piglets with diarrhea, and the positive rate was found to be 100% (149/149). However, this virus was detected in only one of 261 clinically healthy piglets, which suggested a strong relationship between the kirV and the diarrheic disease. We obtained the whole-genome sequences of three kirVs (Cj-D5, Cj-D32, and Cj-D43), with a length of 3750 nucleotides (nt) and sharing 99.9% nt identity with donkey kirVs. Furthermore, the three viruses shared 88.5-100% and 23-51% of the Rep protein sequence, similar to available reference strains of Kirkoviridae and Circoviridae, respectively. Moreover, like horse and donkey kirVs, the RCR domain and P-loop NTPase domains of Rep protein and nonanucleotide motif (CAATATTAC) of the three viruses were similar to those of Circoviruses and Cycloviruses. Phylogenetic analysis showed that these viruses could be grouped with members in the proposed family Kirkoviridae. This is the first report to describe that kirV can circulate in piglets with diarrhea, and future studies are needed to determine the pathogenesis of this virus.
柯克病毒（kirV），一个看似全新的病毒家族，已在马和驴中被发现。该研究的目的是调查该病毒在猪中的存在情况。在本研究中，在腹泻仔猪的直肠拭子中检测到了类似驴的柯克病毒，阳性率为100%（149/149）。然而，在261头临床健康仔猪中仅在一头检测到该病毒，这表明柯克病毒与腹泻病之间存在密切关系。我们获得了三种柯克病毒（Cj-D5、Cj-D32和Cj-D43）的全基因组序列，长度为3750个核苷酸（nt），与驴柯克病毒的核苷酸同一性为99.9%。此外，这三种病毒的复制蛋白序列分别与柯克病毒科和圆环病毒科的现有参考菌株共享88.5%-100%和23%-51%。而且，与马和驴的柯克病毒一样，这三种病毒的复制蛋白的RCR结构域和P-loop NTPase结构域以及非核苷酸基序（CAATATTAC）与圆环病毒和环病毒相似。系统发育分析表明，这些病毒可与拟议的柯克病毒科成员归为一类。这是首次报道柯克病毒可在腹泻仔猪中传播，未来需要开展研究以确定该病毒的发病机制。
