Wild boar harbouring African swine fever virus in the demilitarized zone in South Korea, 2019

Abstract

The African swine fever virus (ASFV) was first detected in wild boar in the Demilitarized Zone, a bordered area between South and North Korea, on 2 October 2019. Phylogenetic analyses of ASFV genes encoding p72 and CD2v indicated that the causative strain belongs to genotype II and serogroup 8, respectively, and contained additional tandem repeat sequences between the I73R and the I329L protein genes.

Keywords: African swine fever virus; South Korea; demilitarized zone; genotype II; wild boar.

Figure 1.

Map indicating the location and phylogenetic analysis of the causative virus strain (isolate 19S804) of an African swine fever virus outbreak in South Korea. (A) African swine fever outbreaks in South Korea in the wild boar (●), North Korea in the backyard pig (▪), China in the domestic pig (△) and China in the wild boar (○). (B) Comparison of partial fragments of the South Korean ASFV isolate 19S804 with those of other ASFV isolates. Roman numbers to the left indicate p72 genotypes. Numbers to the right indicate the CD2v serogroup. The black star at the end of the gene number indicates IGR II; white star, IGR I variant. GenBank accession numbers are provided for all sequences.