Whole genome sequencing and molecular epidemiology of the 2021 African swine fever virus outbreak in the Dominican Republic

Abstract

African swine fever (ASF) is a high-consequence transboundary disease of domestic and wild swine often characterized by high case mortality rates. On July 29, 2021, the Dominican Republic announced the African swine fever virus (ASFV) had been detected in samples collected in early- to mid-July 2021. Retrospective testing of samples collected as part of a collaborative surveillance project between the United States and the Dominican Republic identified ASFV in samples collected as early as May 13, 2021. These detections represent a new outbreak of ASF in the Dominican Republic, which had been declared free of the disease since 1981. Overall, 73 whole genomes of ASFV were sequenced from clinical samples received during the outbreak across 18 provinces. The genomic sequence data have been deposited in public databases to support and expand global data sharing on this impactful disease. While the sequences show a high degree of nucleotide identity to publicly available ASFV genomes from Europe and Asia, they are genetically distant from genomes in the public repositories by at least 8 previously undescribed single nucleotide polymorphisms.

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