pathogens Article Genetic Characterization of Porcine Circovirus 3 Strains Circulating in Sardinian Pigs and Wild Boars Silvia Dei Giudici 1,* , Giulia Franzoni 1 , Piero Bonelli 1, Pier Paolo Angioi 1, Susanna Zinellu 1, Viviana Deriu 2, Tania Carta 1, Anna Maria Sechi 1, Francesco Salis 3, Francesca Balzano 4 and Annalisa Oggiano 1 1 Department of Animal Health, Istituto Zooprofilattico Sperimentale della Sardegna, 07100 Sassari, Italy;
[email protected] (G.F.);
[email protected] (P.B.);
[email protected] (P.P.A.);
[email protected] (S.Z.);
[email protected] (T.C.);
[email protected] (A.M.S.);
[email protected] (A.O.) 2 Department of Veterinary Medicine, Università degli Studi di Sassari, Facoltà di Medicina Veterinaria, Via Vienna 2, 07100 Sassari, Italy;
[email protected] 3 Freelance Veterinary Practitioner, Via Minerva, Ploaghe, 07017 Sassari, Italy;
[email protected] 4 Department of Biomedical Sciences, Università degli Studi di Sassari, Viale San Pietro, 07100 Sassari, Italy;
[email protected] * Correspondence:
[email protected]; Tel.: +39-079289355 Received: 9 March 2020; Accepted: 29 April 2020; Published: 2 May 2020 Abstract: Porcine circovirus 3 (PCV3) is a recently discovered member of the Circoviridae family. So far, its presence has been reported in North America, Asia, South America, and Europe. In this study, blood and tissue samples from 189 Sardinian suids (34 domestic pigs, 115 feral free ranging pigs, and 39 wild boars) were used to genetically characterize the PCV3 strains from Sardinia. PCV3 infection in the animals was confirmed by real time PCR.