Abstract
African swine fever (ASF) is a highly contagious viral disease of swine which causes high mortality, approaching 100%, in domestic pigs. ASF is caused by a large, double stranded DNA virus, ASF virus (ASFV), which replicates predominantly in the cytoplasm of macrophages and is the only member of the Asfarviridae family, genus Asfivirus. The natural hosts of this virus include wild suids and arthropod vectors of the Ornithodoros genus. The infection of ASFV in its reservoir hosts is usually asymptomatic and develops a persistent infection. In contrast, infection of domestic pigs leads to a lethal hemorrhagic fever for which there is no effective vaccine. Identification of ASFV genes involved in virulence and the characterization of mechanisms used by the virus to evade the immune response of the host are recognized as critical steps in the development of a vaccine. Moreover, the interplay of the viral products with host pathways, which are relevant for virus replication, provides the basic information needed for the identification of potential targets for the development of intervention strategies against this disease.
Highlights
African swine fever (ASF) is a viral disease of swine that leads to a high mortality in domestic pigs while being asymptomatic in the natural suid reservoir hosts [1,2,3]
The ASF virus (ASFV) particle has an icosahedral morphology composed of several concentric domains: the internal core formed by the central genome contains the nucleoid, which is coated by a thick protein layer named core shell; an inner lipid envelope surrounding the core; and the capsid, which is the outermost layer of the intracellular virions [21]
It was previously suggested as a potential virus receptor, as monoclonal antibodies against this molecule were able to block infection of primary alveolar macrophages [28]
Summary
African swine fever (ASF) is a viral disease of swine that leads to a high mortality in domestic pigs while being asymptomatic in the natural suid reservoir hosts [1,2,3]. ASF is caused by the ASF virus (ASFV), a double-stranded DNA virus with a complex molecular structure. It is the only member of the Asfarviridae family [5] and the only DNA virus transmitted by arthropods, soft ticks of the Ornithodoros genus [3,6]. Soft ticks (Ornithodoros moubata) are involved in the sylvatic transmission cycle of the virus in Africa and O. erraticus in Europe. The epidemiological complexity of ASF has been clearly demonstrated in eastern and southern Africa, where genetic characterization of ASFV based on sequence variation in the C-terminal region of the B646L gene encoding the major capsid protein p72, revealed the presence of 22 genotypes [11,12]. This review paper summarizes the current state of knowledge about ASFV
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