Genotype I African swine fever viruses emerged in domestic pigs in China and caused chronic infection

Encheng Sun; Lianyu Huang; Xianfeng Zhang; Jiwen Zhang; Dongdong Shen; Zhenjiang Zhang; Zilong Wang; Hong Huo; Wenqing Wang; Haoyue Huangfu; Wan Wang; Fang Li; Renqiang Liu; Jianhong Sun; Zhijun Tian; Wei Xia; Yuntao Guan; Xijun He; Yuanmao Zhu; Dongming Zhao; Zhigao Bu

doi:10.1080/22221751.2021.1999779

Genotype I African swine fever viruses emerged in domestic pigs in China and caused chronic infection

Emerg Microbes Infect. 2021 Dec;10(1):2183-2193. doi: 10.1080/22221751.2021.1999779.

Authors

Encheng Sun¹, Lianyu Huang¹, Xianfeng Zhang¹, Jiwen Zhang¹, Dongdong Shen¹, Zhenjiang Zhang¹, Zilong Wang¹, Hong Huo¹, Wenqing Wang¹, Haoyue Huangfu¹, Wan Wang¹, Fang Li¹, Renqiang Liu¹, Jianhong Sun¹, Zhijun Tian¹, Wei Xia¹, Yuntao Guan¹, Xijun He¹, Yuanmao Zhu¹, Dongming Zhao¹, Zhigao Bu¹

Affiliation

¹ State Key Laboratory of Veterinary Biotechnology, National High Containment Facilities for Animal Diseases Control and Prevention, National African Swine Fever Para-reference Laboratory, Harbin Veterinary Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Harbin, People's Republic of China.

Abstract

The Georgia-07-like genotype II African swine fever virus (ASFV) with high virulence has been prevalent in China since 2018. Here, we report that genotype I ASFVs have now also emerged in China. Two non-haemadsorbing genotype I ASFVs, HeN/ZZ-P1/21 and SD/DY-I/21, were isolated from pig farms in Henan and Shandong province, respectively. Phylogenetic analysis of the whole genome sequences suggested that both isolates share high similarity with NH/P68 and OURT88/3, two genotype I ASFVs isolated in Portugal in the last century. Animal challenge testing revealed that SD/DY-I/21 shows low virulence and efficient transmissibility in pigs, and causes mild onset of infection and chronic disease. SD/DY-I/21 was found to cause necrotic skin lesions and joint swelling. The emergence of genotype I ASFVs will present more problems and challenges for the control and prevention of African swine fever in China.

Keywords: African swine fever virus; China; genotype I; pig; virulence.

MeSH terms

African Swine Fever / epidemiology
African Swine Fever / transmission
African Swine Fever / virology*
African Swine Fever Virus / classification
African Swine Fever Virus / genetics*
African Swine Fever Virus / isolation & purification*
African Swine Fever Virus / pathogenicity
Animals
China / epidemiology
Genome, Viral
Genotype
Phylogeny
Sus scrofa / virology
Swine
Virulence

Grants and funding

This work was supported by the National Key R&D Program of China [grant number 2018YFC1200601 and 2019YFE0107300], the Applied Technology Research and Development Project of Heilongjiang Province [grant number GA19B301], the Key-Area Research and Development Program of Guangdong Province [grant number 2019B020211004], the National Natural Science Foundation of China [grant number 31941002], the National Science and Technology Major Project [grant number 2018ZX10734401-018-002], and a grant from the State Key Laboratory of Veterinary Biotechnology Program [grant number SKLVBP202101].