Characterization of a Novel African Swine Fever Virus p72 Genotype II from Nigeria

Aruna Ambagala; Kalhari Goonewardene; Lindsey Lamboo; Melissa Goolia; Cassidy Erdelyan; Mathew Fisher; Katherine Handel; Oliver Lung; Sandra Blome; Jacqueline King; Jan Hendrik Forth; Sten Calvelage; Edward Spinard; Douglas P Gladue; Charles Masembe; Adeyinka J Adedeji; Toyin Olubade; Nanven A Maurice; Hussaini G Ularamu; Pam D Luka

doi:10.3390/v15040915

Characterization of a Novel African Swine Fever Virus p72 Genotype II from Nigeria

Viruses. 2023 Apr 2;15(4):915. doi: 10.3390/v15040915.

Authors

Aruna Ambagala^{1

2}, Kalhari Goonewardene¹, Lindsey Lamboo¹, Melissa Goolia¹, Cassidy Erdelyan¹, Mathew Fisher¹, Katherine Handel¹, Oliver Lung¹, Sandra Blome³, Jacqueline King³, Jan Hendrik Forth³, Sten Calvelage³, Edward Spinard⁴, Douglas P Gladue⁴, Charles Masembe⁵, Adeyinka J Adedeji⁶, Toyin Olubade⁶, Nanven A Maurice⁶, Hussaini G Ularamu⁶, Pam D Luka⁶

Affiliations

¹ National Centre for Foreign Animal Disease, Canadian Food Inspection Agency, Winnipeg, MB R3E 3M4, Canada.
² Department of Medical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases, Max Rady College of Medicine, University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, MB R3E 0J9, Canada.
³ Institute of Diagnostic Virology, Friedrich-Loeffler-Institut, Suedufer 10, 17493 Greifswald, Germany.
⁴ Plum Island Animal Disease Center, Agricultural Research Service, United States Department of Agriculture, Greenport, NY 11944, USA.
⁵ College of Natural Resources (CoNAS), Makerere University, Kampala P.O Box 7062, Uganda.
⁶ National Veterinary Research Institute, Vom 930103, Nigeria.

Abstract

African swine fever (ASF) is a high-consequence transboundary hemorrhagic fever of swine. It continues to spread across the globe causing socio-economic issues and threatening food security and biodiversity. In 2020, Nigeria reported a major ASF outbreak, killing close to half a million pigs. Based on the partial sequences of the genes B646L (p72) and E183L (p54), the virus responsible for the outbreak was identified as an African swine fever virus (ASFV) p72 genotype II. Here, we report further characterization of ASFV RV502, one of the isolates obtained during the outbreak. The whole genome sequence of this virus revealed a deletion of 6535 bp between the nucleotide positions 11,760-18,295 of the genome, and an apparent reverse complement duplication of the 5' end of the genome at the 3' end. Phylogenetically, ASFV RV502 clustered together with ASFV MAL/19/Karonga and ASFV Tanzania/Rukwa/2017/1 suggesting that the virus responsible for the 2020 outbreak in Nigeria has a South-eastern African origin.

Keywords: African swine fever; Nigeria; West Africa; genotype II.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

African Swine Fever Virus* / genetics
African Swine Fever* / epidemiology
Animals
Disease Outbreaks
Genotype
Nigeria / epidemiology
Phylogeny
Sequence Analysis, DNA
Sus scrofa
Swine

Grants and funding

This research was funded by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency and the Global Affairs of Canada Project Building Sustainable Diagnostic Capability for Eradication of African Swine Fever in Ghana (Project Number: BIO-2018-0029).