Possibility of long-term survival of African swine fever virus in natural conditions

Vet World Vol.14 April-2021 Article-6

Research Article

Veterinary World, 14(4): 854-859

https://doi.org/10.14202/vetworld.2021.854-859

Hranush Arzumanyan¹, Sona Hakobyan¹, Hranush Avagyan², Roza Izmailyan¹, Narek Nersisyan¹, and Zaven Karalyan¹

1. Laboratory of Cell Biology and Virology, Institute of Molecular Biology of NAS RA, Yerevan, Armenia.
2. Experimental Laboratory, Yerevan State Medical University, Yerevan, Armenia.

Background and Aim: In modern scientific literature presents an understanding that African swine fever (ASF) ASF virus (ASFV) is remarkably stable in the environment, and carcasses of the pigs which were died after ASF, play a key role as ASFV reservoir. The aim of this study was to evaluate the possibility of the ASFV (different isolates) survival in bodies of dead animals, bones, remnants of bone marrow, residual organ matrix in natural conditions.

Materials and Methods: Skeletons of ASFV infected pigs which were died and left/abandoned in forests or buried in Armenia at diverse time points and locations had been excavated and examined for the presence of ASFV genome by real-time polymerase chain reaction (PCR) assay and for infection abilities through in vitro (hemadsorption test and infection in porcine lung macrophages) as well as by intramuscular infection in healthy pigs.

Results: Current exploration showed that in several samples (with different times of exposure) of excavated skeletons had been detected the presence of the virus gene (p72) using real-time PCR. However, in none of these porcine samples, infectious ASFV could be isolated. Data obtained by real-time PCR at frequent intervals indicated the presence of the virus gene (p72), especially within the case of the acute form of the disease. This can be explained by the highest levels of the virus during the latter case mentioned above.

Conclusion: ASFV seems to be very sensitive to environmental temperature. The best place for ASFV long-term survival in the natural environment is bone marrow from intact big tubular bones (like femur or tibia) of buried carcasses. In artificial "graves," complete bones with not destructed bone marrow can preserve the virus gene (p72) for a very long time (more than 2 years). Infectious particles in underground conditions survive not so long: In complete bones with not affected bone marrow, possible presence of the virus for several months. Keywords: African swine fever virus, p72 gene, virus infectivity, virus survival.

Keywords: African swine fever virus, p72 gene, virus infectivity, virus survival.

How to cite this article: Arzumanyan H, Hakobyan S, Avagyan H, Izmailyan R, Nersisyan N, Karalyan Z (2021) Possibility of long-term survival of African swine fever virus in natural conditions, Veterinary World, 14(4): 854-859.

Received: 26-11-2020 Accepted: 22-02-2021 Published online: 09-04-2021

Corresponding author: Zaven Karalyan E-mail: zkaralyan@yahoo.com

DOI: 10.14202/vetworld.2021.854-859

Copyright: Arzumanyan, et al. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http:// creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated.