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.

A frican swine fever (ASF) is a complex and lethal viral disease affecting swine and has a significant socioeconomic impact on both the developed and developing world. It has a major negative effect on national, regional, and international trade and constrains pig production in affected areas. The devastating acute form of the disease is characterized, among other features, by functional and congestive-hemorrhagic disorders of the digestive and respiratory systems and causes around 100% mortality in infected pigs (1). Both European wild boars (Sus scrofa) and feral pigs are susceptible and exhibit clinical signs and mortality rates similar to those of domestic pigs. In contrast, African wild pigs (Phacochoerus and Potamochoerus spp.) are resistant to the disease (2-10).The causative agent of the disease, the ASF virus (ASFV), is a large double-stranded DNA virus and the only member of the Asfarviridae family, genus Asfivirus (11, 12). The virus genome is 170 to 192 kb long (13-17). ASF is endemic in sub-Saharan Africa, where it was first described in 1921 (18). Several outbreaks have occurred since then in Europe and South and Central America. In most non-African countries, the disease has been successfully eradicated, the only exception being Sardinia (Italy), where the disease is still endemic (19,20). In April 2007, the disease spread from East Africa to the Republic of Georgia (21), and outbreaks occurred in Armenia, Azerbaijan, and the Russian Federation (22). The ongoing spread of ASFV into adjacent eastern European countries, such as Ukraine (23,24) and Belarus (25), and the situation in Russia affecting both wild boars and domestic pigs placed neighboring areas in the European Union (EU) at risk for the spread of ASFV. The first cases of ASF in wild boars in Lithuania and Poland were reported in early 2014 in areas bordering . According to the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE), during 2014, nearly 260 ASF cases or outbreaks in wild boars and domestic pigs were detected in EU countries (Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, and Poland). This situation, combined with the uncertainty present in Belarus, has created a permanent risk of reintroducing ASF into the EU via wild boars or the illegal trade of contaminated pork products and waste (31).No vaccine is available to prevent ASF infection. The control and eradication measures applicable are based on classical disease control methods, including surveillance, epidemiological investigation, tracing of pigs, and stamping out in infected holdings. Citation Gallardo C, Nieto R, Soler A, Pelayo V, Fernández-Pinero J, MarkowskaDaniel I, Pridotkas G, Nurmoja I, Granta R, Simón A, Pérez C, Martín E, Fernández-Pacheco P, Arias M. 2015. Assessment of African swine fever diagnostic techniques as a response to the epidemic outbreaks in eastern European Union countries: how to improve surveillance and control programs.

Abstract. In the course of an epidemiologic surveillance program for swine diseases carried out in Spain, 206 cytopathic viruses were isolated from 600 porcine fecal samples between 2004 and 2005. The virus isolates were examined using reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) methods specific for different types of porcine picornaviruses, including members of the Teschovirus, Enterovirus, and Sapelovirus genera, and PCR for porcine adenoviruses. Of the 206 isolates, 97 (47%) were identified as teschoviruses, 18 (9%) as sapeloviruses, and 7 (3%) as porcine adenoviruses. Neither Porcine enterovirus B nor Swine vesicular disease virus was found among the isolates. The present study confirms that teschoviruses are highly prevalent in porcine fecal samples, at least in Spain. It also reveals that these viruses commonly circulate among apparently healthy pigs.

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