African swine fever virus (ASFV) was first reported in eastern Europe/Eurasia in 2007. Continued spread of ASFV has placed central European countries at risk, and in 2014, ASFV was detected in Lithuania and Poland. Sequencing showed the isolates are identical to a 2013 ASFV from Belarus but differ from ASFV isolated in Georgia in 2007.

Since 2007, African swine fever has spread from the Caucasus region. To learn more about the dynamics of the disease in wild boars (Sus scrofa), we conducted experiments by using European wild boars. We found high virulence of Caucasus isolates limited potential for establishment of endemicity.

African swine fever virus (ASFV) causes highly lethal hemorrhagic disease among pigs, and ASFV’s extreme antigenic diversity hinders vaccine development. We show that p72 ASFV phylogenetic analysis does not accurately define ASFV hemadsorption inhibition assay serogroups. Thus, conventional ASFV genotyping cannot discriminate between viruses of different virulence or predict efficacy of a specific ASFV vaccine.

African swine fever (ASF) is an emerging disease threat for the swine industry worldwide. No ASF vaccine is available and progress is hindered by lack of knowledge concerning the extent of ASF virus (ASFV) strain diversity and the viral antigens responsible for protection in the pig. Available data from vaccination/challenge experiments in pigs indicate ASF protective immunity is haemadsorption inhibition (HAI) serotype-specific. A better understanding of ASFV HAI serological groups and their diversity in nature, as well as improved methods to serotype ASFV isolates, is needed. Here, we demonstrated that the genetic locus encoding ASFV CD2v and C-type lectin proteins mediates HAI serological specificity and that CD2v/C-type lectin genotyping provides a simple method to group ASFVs by serotype, thus facilitating study of ASFV strain diversity in nature, and providing information necessary for eventual vaccine design, development and efficacious use.