According to the US Department of Agriculture-Agricultural Research Service (USDA-ARS), researchers have reclassified the number of strains of African Swine Fever (ASF) from 25 different strains down to six distinct genotypes.
African Swine Fever Reclassified Into Six Genotypes
With this novel scientific innovation, African swine flu researchers from all over the world could be aided with how they classify isolates of the ASF virus (ASFV). This may also make it easier for specialists to create vaccines that match various strains of ASF across endemic regions.
Douglas Gladue, a senior ARS scientist, explains that in the past, there were 25 different genotypes of the virus that were identified all over the world. Gladue explains that their research team performed re-evaluations on all the virus DNA sequences that are publicly available. Doing so enabled them to discover that most genotypes that were originally found to be novel were not identified correctly and not correctly compared to existing genotypes of African swine flu virus.
According to their analysis, there are fewer genotypes of ASF than thought. This means that there is less African swine fever virus diversity all over the globe.
Such data pertaining to the strain classification is crucial as it may decrease the vaccine numbers that were thought to be necessary to combat all genotypes of ASFV. It is also important to accurately classify strains of viruses in order to conduct epidemiological examinations and to develop countermeasures that are cost-effective.
More than 12,000 current and historical African swine flu virus isolates were covered by the efforts, thanks to the great computing power of the ARS' SciNet's. This supercomputer cluster is used by the ARS to handle big data problems pertaining to agriculture.
African Swine Fever
ASF is a deadly and highly contagious disease that affects both feral and domestic swine of different ages. Affected pigs can have a mortality rate that goes as high as 100%.
The condition does not pose any threat to humans or food safety. Pig-to-human transmission is also not possible. However, the condition gravely affects the farming economy and the population of pigs.
The fever is highly environment-resistant, which means that it can live on boots, clothes, wheels, and other kinds of materials. It can also survive in various pord products, such as bacon and ham. This shows that human behaviors play a crucial role in pig disease spread if proper measures are not executed.
Various countries all over the world have reported cases of ASF. Despite how the ASFV leads to grave economic losses to the swine industry across the world, no outbreaks have been observed in the USA. The virus entered the Republic of Georgia back in 2007 and has surged through Europe, Asia, and the Dominican republic. Early this year, the virus hit South Africa.
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