Recombination of two porcine circovirus type 2 strains

Pigs can be concurrently infected with different PCV2 strains. In this study, a cell-culture-adapted PCV2 strain, originating from a PMWS-affected pig, was purified by limiting dilution. Three different strains were obtained, and one of them was a perfect mosaic of the other two, with recombination breakpoints in ORF1 and ORF2. Incongruence was observed between phylogenetic trees constructed with the whole genome, ORF1 and ORF2. Amplification of ORF1 and ORF2 from original material, followed by cloning and sequencing, resulted in sequences corresponding to the parental strains, but not with the mosaic strain. These results demonstrate that PCV2 can undergo recombination.