Molecular survey of avian circoviruses in some non-psittacine birds and detection of a novel canary circovirus in a pigeon

Circoviruses are small, non-enveloped, single stranded DNA viruses. There is scarce information about these agents in non-psittacine birds.

It is attempted to detect and characterize circoviruses in non-psittacine birds.

Forty-five samples were collected from different non-psittacine species belonging to seven avian orders. A nested polymerase chain reaction (nested-PCR) for the detection of rep gene of circoviruses was applied.

Two different types of circoviruses were detected in two pigeon samples (2/11, 18.2%). One of the detected circoviruses was placed in clade A next to a polish strain based on phylogenetic analysis. Interestingly, the other detected circovirus was closely related to canary circoviruses (CaCVs).

In addition to the molecular diagnosis of a pigeon circovirus (PiCV), this is the first report of the detection of CaCv in a pigeon. The possible hypotheses of such circumstance are discussed.