ASF_SwineResistance · African Swine Fever, the Sus scrofa evolutionary genomic response

African Swine Fever, the Sus scrofa evolutionary genomic response

African Swine Fever (ASF) is a notifiable devastating hemorrhagic fever, caused by a virus, with mortality rates up to 100% in pigs. It affects all members of the Suidae family and is one of the most important pig diseases due to its severe socio-economic consequences for affected countries, the difficulty of preventing spread across country boundaries, and the lack of vaccine or therapeutic control measures. The transmission cycle can involve different hosts and the virus can survive for several months in the environment or in pig products. This is particularly important as, although the virus is not a threat for humans, direct transmission between pigs or consumption of infected wastes are considered the most common and efficient transmission routes. The virus is endemic in several African countries, where the presence of resistant Suids (e.g. Potamochoerus larvatus) contributes to the cycle, and in Sardinia since 1978. In 2007 it reached Georgia and started spreading through the Caucasian area, subsequently reaching Russia and afterwards the Baltic countries and Europe. ASF can cause important economic losses and can create health related problems in forested areas due to the presence of wild boar carcases killed by the virus. Additionally, the possibility of outbreaks in a high mobile species, like the wild boar, might increase the possibility of spread among countries. Although this is not going to affect industrial farms, it could create problems to small, backyard and organic farms, as well as for hunting associations that integrate their incomes by selling the meat, with negative impact on local communities economy. This project aimed at using genome-wide DNA technologies to understand if there is anything in the wild boar and domestic pig genome that might help counteracting the infection or that could be targeted to develop a cure. Additionally, we wanted to assess the hybridization rate between the domestic pig and the wild boar to identify possible transmission routes in pig diseases (not only ASF). Our results are not optimistic concerning the development of genetic-based veterinary treatment, as we found statistically significant difference between the genomes of healthy and infected individuals. However, the analysis of hybridization levels detected the presence of a few areas at higher risk, where we could concentrate efforts (by for e.g. building fences around outdoor farms) to prevent the spread of diseases. This is particularly important as small local pig farms, due to their lower biosecurity measures, are more at risk and this might have a heavy impact on local economies that rely on backyard farming or selling wild boar meat for their income.

Data: CORDIS, © European Union