First Detection of African Swine Fever (ASF) Virus Genotype X And Serogroup 7 in Symptomatic Pigs in The Democratic Republic of Congo.

Abstract

The biggest threat to global animal-source food security is infectious disease. African swine fever (ASF) is a contagious, notifiable and highly infectious fatal haemorrhagic viral disease of domestic pigs with significant economic effects due to massive losses in pig population in affected regions . It is caused by African swine fever virus (ASFV), a large, linear double-stranded DNA virus. It is the sole member of the genus Asfivirus within the Asfarviridae family, with a genome of 170–193 kbp in length. Warthogs, bush pigs and the soft tick of the genus Ornithodoros are the major reservoirs [3, 4, 5]. ASFV infection is almost always fatal in domestic pigs and the lack of effective vaccines and treatments is a big challenge for its prevention and control. The disease is endemic in more than 25 sub-Saharan African countries. Frequent epidemics of ASF in Russian Federation (2007–2020) and large parts of Eastern Europe (2014–2020) [6, 7], as well as disease spread in China in 2018—the producer of approximately half of the world’s one billion pigs—highlight the significant threat of this disease to the global pig industry, which is worth more than USD150 billion a year