Emergence and prevalence of naturally occurring lower virulent African swine fever viruses in domestic pigs in China in 2020

Encheng Sun^#¹, Zhenjiang Zhang^#¹, Zilong Wang^#¹, Xijun He^#¹, Xianfeng Zhang¹, Lulu Wang¹, Wenqing Wang¹, Lianyu Huang¹, Fei Xi¹, Haoyue Huangfu¹, Ghebremedhin Tsegay¹, Hong Huo¹, Jianhong Sun¹, Zhijun Tian¹, Wei Xia¹, Xuewu Yu², Fang Li¹, Renqiang Liu¹, Yuntao Guan¹, Dongming Zhao³, Zhigao Bu⁴

Affiliations

¹ State Key Laboratory of Veterinary Biotechnology, National High Containment Facilities for Animal Diseases Control and Prevention, Harbin Veterinary Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Harbin, 150069, China.
² College of Animal Science and Technology, Inner Mongolia University for Nationalities, Tongliao, 028000, China.
³ State Key Laboratory of Veterinary Biotechnology, National High Containment Facilities for Animal Diseases Control and Prevention, Harbin Veterinary Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Harbin, 150069, China. zhaodongming@caas.cn.
⁴ State Key Laboratory of Veterinary Biotechnology, National High Containment Facilities for Animal Diseases Control and Prevention, Harbin Veterinary Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Harbin, 150069, China. buzhigao@caas.cn.

^# Contributed equally.

PMID: 33655434
DOI: 10.1007/s11427-021-1904-4

Emergence and prevalence of naturally occurring lower virulent African swine fever viruses in domestic pigs in China in 2020

Encheng Sun et al. Sci China Life Sci. 2021 May.

. 2021 May;64(5):752-765.

doi: 10.1007/s11427-021-1904-4. Epub 2021 Feb 26.

Authors

Affiliations

¹ State Key Laboratory of Veterinary Biotechnology, National High Containment Facilities for Animal Diseases Control and Prevention, Harbin Veterinary Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Harbin, 150069, China.
² College of Animal Science and Technology, Inner Mongolia University for Nationalities, Tongliao, 028000, China.
³ State Key Laboratory of Veterinary Biotechnology, National High Containment Facilities for Animal Diseases Control and Prevention, Harbin Veterinary Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Harbin, 150069, China. zhaodongming@caas.cn.
⁴ State Key Laboratory of Veterinary Biotechnology, National High Containment Facilities for Animal Diseases Control and Prevention, Harbin Veterinary Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Harbin, 150069, China. buzhigao@caas.cn.

^# Contributed equally.

PMID: 33655434
DOI: 10.1007/s11427-021-1904-4

Abstract

African swine fever virus (ASFV) has been circulating in China for more than two years, and it is not clear whether the biological properties of the virus have changed. Here, we report on our surveillance of ASFVs in seven provinces of China, from June to December, 2020. A total of 22 viruses were isolated and characterized as genotype II ASFVs, with mutations, deletions, insertions, or short-fragment replacement occurring in all isolates compared with Pig/HLJ/2018 (HLJ/18), the earliest isolate in China. Eleven isolates had four different types of natural mutations or deletion in the EP402R gene and displayed a non-hemadsorbing (non-HAD) phenotype. Four isolates were tested for virulence in pigs; two were found to be as highly lethal as HLJ/18. However, two non-HAD isolates showed lower virulence but were highly transmissible; infection with 10⁶ TCID₅₀ dose was partially lethal and caused acute or sub-acute disease, whereas 10³ TCID₅₀ dose caused non-lethal, sub-acute or chronic disease, and persistent infection. The emergence of lower virulent natural mutants brings greater difficulty to the early diagnosis of ASF and creates new challenges for ASFV control.

Keywords: African swine fever virus; lower virulent; natural mutant; non-hemadsorbing.

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Emergence and prevalence of naturally occurring lower virulent African swine fever viruses in domestic pigs in China in 2020

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Emergence and prevalence of naturally occurring lower virulent African swine fever viruses in domestic pigs in China in 2020

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