Characteristics of African Swine Fever Virus Isolated from Domestic Pigs and Wild Boars in the Russian Federation and South Ossetia

The article presents the results of a comparative study of the biological, molecular and genetic characteristics of African swine fever virus (ASFV) isolates, obtained from domestic pigs and wild boars in the Russian Federation and South Ossetia from 2016 to 2018. The studied isolates caused the death of pigs manifesting, as a rule, signs of an acute or subacute form of the disease when using various methods of infection including intramuscular, direct contact, intranasal and oral routes. The virus was hemadsorbing, belonging to serotype 8 and genotype II, and accumulated in the blood with a titer of 6.5 to 7.5 lg HAU₅₀/cm³. The ASFV isolates circulating in the central region of Russia were found to have an insertion of 10 base pairs in the intergenic region I73R/I329L. However, the ASFV isolated in the Irkutsk region and South Ossetia, as well as Georgia 2007/1 (FR682468.1), lacked this insertion.