Classical swine fever (CSF) remains one of the most important transboundary viral diseases of swine worldwide. The causative agent is CSF virus, a small, enveloped RNA virus of the genus Pestivirus. Based on partial sequences, three genotypes can be distinguished that do not, however, directly correlate with virulence. Depending on both virus and host factors, a wide range of clinical syndromes can be observed and thus, laboratory confirmation is mandatory. To this means, both direct and indirect methods are utilized with an increasing degree of commercialization. Both infections in domestic pigs and wild boar are of great relevance; and wild boars are a reservoir host transmitting the virus sporadically also to pig farms. Control strategies for epidemic outbreaks in free countries are mainly based on classical intervention measures; i.e., quarantine and strict culling of affected herds. In these countries, vaccination is only an emergency option. However, live vaccines are used for controlling the disease in endemically infected regions in Asia, Eastern Europe, the Americas, and some African countries. Here, we will provide a concise, updated review on virus properties, clinical signs and pathology, epidemiology, pathogenesis and immune responses, diagnosis and vaccination possibilities.

Inactivated whole-virus vaccines are widely used for the control of foot-and-mouth disease (FMD). Their production requires the growth of large quantities of virulent FMD virus in biocontainment facilities, which is expensive and carries the risk of an inadvertent release of virus. Attenuated recombinant viruses lacking the leader protease coding region have been proposed as a safer alternative for the production of inactivated FMD vaccines (Uddowla et al., 2012, J Virol 86:11675-85). In addition to the leader deletion, the marker vaccine virus FMDV LL3B_PVKV3D_YR A₂₄ encodes amino acid substitutions in the viral proteins 3B and 3D that allow the differentiation of infected from vaccinated animals and has been previously shown to be effective in cattle and pigs. In the present study, two groups of six pigs each were inoculated with live FMDV LL3B_PVKV3D_YR A₂₄ virus either intradermally into the heel bulb (IDHB) or by intra-oropharyngeal (IOP) deposition. The animals were observed for 3 or 5 days after inoculation, respectively. Serum, oral and nasal swabs were collected daily and a thorough postmortem examination with tissue collection was performed at the end of the experiment. None of the animals had any signs of disease or virus shedding. Virus was reisolated from only one serum sample (IDHB group, sample taken on day 1) and one piece of heel bulb skin from the inoculation site of another animal (IDHB group, necropsy on day 3), confirming that FMDV LL3B_PVKV3D_YR A₂₄ is highly attenuated in pigs.