Objective To study porcine circovirus 3 (PCV3) infection in BALB/ c mice. Methods FemaleBALB/ c mice were divided into two groups. Mice in the experimental group were infected with PCV3 derived from infectedpig tissues. The mice in the control group were injected with the same volume of PBS. The status of the mice was observeddaily after infection, and blood samples were analyzed by quantitative RT-PCR and ELISA at days 0, 3, 7, 11 and 14 postinfection. At the end of the experiment, all animals were euthanized, and samples of heart, liver, spleen, lung, kidney,brain and lymph nodes were taken for quantitative RT-PCR and pathological examination. The PCV3 CAP gene wassequenced in the PCR-positive tissues. Results Mice infected with PCV3 did not show obvious clinical symptoms orpathological changes, and the virus was detected in serum during early infection. The liver and spleen showed the highestviral copy numbers, and the nucleic acid sequence was not changed in the infected organs. Antibody titers were increasedduring the infection. Conclusions BALB/ c mice can be infected with PCV3. This study provides useful information to study the pathogenicity of PCV3 as well as prevention and control of the disease.