Phylogeographic Analysis of African Swine Fever Virus, Western Europe, 2018

Abstract

In September 2018, African swine fever in wild boars was detected in Belgium. We used African swine fever-infected spleen samples to perform a phylogenetic analysis of the virus. The causative strain belongs to genotype II, and its closest relatives are viruses previously isolated in Ukraine, Belarus, Estonia, and European Russia.

Keywords: African swine fever; African swine fever virus; Asfarviridae; Belgium; Europe; emergence; viruses; wild boar.

Figure

A) Evolutionary relationships of representative strains of African swine fever virus based on the neighbor-joining phylogeny of the partial p72 gene sequences. The phylogenetic analysis was performed using MEGA7 (http://www.megasoftware.net) and the Kimura 2-parameter substitution model, as determined by a model selection analysis. Bootstrap values (>70%, based on 500 replicates) for each node are given. GenBank accession numbers, country, and year of collection are indicated for each strain; for strains for which the year of collection is not known, the strain name is indicated. Corresponding genotypes are labeled I–XXIV. Box indicates the African swine fever sequence from Belgium generated during this study. Scale bar indicates nucleotide substitutions per site. B) Nucleotide sequence alignment of the partial intergenic region between the I73R and I329L genes from representative African swine fever virus strains. GenBank accession numbers, country, and year of collection are indicated.