Deletion of the African Swine Fever Virus Gen I196L in the Georgia2010 Isolate Genome Does Not Affect Virus Replication or Virulence in Domestic Pigs
African swine fever (ASF) is a lethal disease of domestic pigs that is currently challenging swine production in large areas of Eurasia and the Caribbean. The causative agent, ASF virus (ASFV), is a large, double-stranded, and structurally complex virus. The ASFV genome encodes for more than 160 proteins; however, the functions of most of them are still in the process of being characterized. Recently, ASFV gene <i>I196L</i> has been reported as being critically involved in disease production in domestic pigs. We report here that a recombinant virus derived from the Georgia 2010 isolate (ASFV-G) lacking the <i>I196L</i> gene, ASFV-G-∆I196L, had the same ability to replicate in primary cultures of swine macrophage and, when experimentally inoculated in pigs, produced a fatal form of the disease similar to that caused by the parental virulent ASFV-G. Therefore, deletion of the <i>I196L</i> gene does not significantly affect virus replication and virulence in domestic pigs of the ASFV Georgia 2010 isolate.
Authors
- Elizabeth Ramírez-Medina (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6566-8608)
- Leeanna Burton (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0003-0943-0461)
- Paul A. Azzinaro (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0172-6415)
- Manuel V. Borca (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0888-1178)
- Ediane Silva (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5155-1361)
- Vivian O’Donnell (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7169-3954)
- Leandro Sastre (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3613-5938)
- Alyssa Valladares (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0001-1570-6773)
- Douglas P. Gladue (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7894-0233)
- James Zhu (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7283-6398)
Institutions
- Oak Ridge Associated Universities (US)
- Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (US)
- Agricultural Research Service (US)
- United States Department of Agriculture (US)
- Plum Island Animal Disease Center (US)
- Oak Ridge Institute for Science and Education
Publication Details
- Journal
- Viruses
- Published
- 2025-04-23
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.3390/v17050603
- Primary Topic
- Animal Disease Management and Epidemiology
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 0.00
Funders
- U.S. Department of Energy
- U.S. Department of Homeland Security
- U.S. Department of Agriculture
- Oak Ridge Associated Universities
- Oak Ridge Institute for Science and Education
- Science and Technology Directorate
- Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service