Development of a polymerase chain reaction procedure for detection and differentiation of duck and goose circovirus

This article reports the complete nucleotide sequences of four duck circovirus (DuCV) isolates from sick ducks in Taiwan and development of a polymerase chain reaction (PCR) for detection and differentiation of goose circovirus (GoCV) and DuCV. Sequence comparison showed that Taiwanese DuCV isolates had 82.5%-83.8% nucleotide sequence identity to the German and North American DuCV isolates. This is the first report on the presence of DuCV and its associated diseases outside Germany. A PCR test was developed using a universal primer pair based on conserved sequences present in the genomes of GoCV and DuCV. This PCR test could detect and differentiate between GoCV and DuCV by the size of PCR product each virus produced (256 bp for GoCV and 228 bp for DuCV). Application of this PCR test to samples of bursa of Fabricius from sick birds in the field showed that 9 of 26 goose samples contained GoCV, while 13 of 34 duck samples contained DuCV. This PCR test could serve as a fast and sensitive method for detection and differentiation of DuCV and GoCV.