<i>Circoviridae</i> Survey in Captive Non-Human Primates, Italy
2024
Vittorio Sarchese | Federica Di Profio | Andrea Palombieri | Klaus Gunther Friedrich | Serena Robetto | Krisztian Banyai | Fulvio Marsilio | Vito Martella | Barbara Di Martino
Circoviruses (CVs) and cycloviruses (CyVs), members of the family <i>Circoviridae</i>, have been identified only occasionally in non-human primates (NHPs). In this study, we investigated the presence and genetic features of these viruses in 48 NHPs housed in the Bioparco—Rome Zoological Garden (Italy) and in the Anima Natura Wild Sanctuary Semproniano (Grosseto, Italy), testing fecal, saliva, and serum samples with a broadly reactive consensus nested PCR able of amplifying a partial region of the replicase (Rep) gene of members of the family <i>Circoviridae</i>. Viral DNA was detected in a total of 10 samples, including a saliva swab and 9 fecal samples collected, respectively from five Japanese macaques (<i>Macaca fuscata</i>) and four mandrills (<i>Mandrillus sphinx</i>), with an overall prevalence of 18.7% (9/48). On genome sequencing, five strains revealed the highest nucleotide identity (98.3–98.6%) to a CyV strain (RI196/ITA) detected in the intestinal content of a Maltese wall lizard (<i>Podarcis filfolensis</i>) in Italy. Although the origin of the Italian NHP strains, genetically distant from previously detected NHP CyVs, is uncertain, our results also highlight that the virome of captive animals is modulated by the different dietary and environmental sources of exposure.
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