Evaluation of the Deletion of African Swine Fever Virus E111R Gene from the Georgia Isolate in Virus Replication and Virulence in Domestic Pigs
Elizabeth Ramirez-Medina,
Lauro Velazquez-Salinas,
Alyssa Valladares,
Amanda Meyers,
Leeanna Burton,
Ediane Silva,
Jason Clark,
Manuel V. Borca,
Douglas P. Gladue
Affiliations
Elizabeth Ramirez-Medina
U.S. Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service, Foreign Animal Disease Research Unit, Plum Island Animal Disease Center (PIADC), P.O. Box 848, Greenport, NY 11944, USA
Lauro Velazquez-Salinas
U.S. Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service, Foreign Animal Disease Research Unit, Plum Island Animal Disease Center (PIADC), P.O. Box 848, Greenport, NY 11944, USA
Alyssa Valladares
U.S. Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service, Foreign Animal Disease Research Unit, Plum Island Animal Disease Center (PIADC), P.O. Box 848, Greenport, NY 11944, USA
Amanda Meyers
U.S. Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service, Foreign Animal Disease Research Unit, Plum Island Animal Disease Center (PIADC), P.O. Box 848, Greenport, NY 11944, USA
Leeanna Burton
U.S. Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service, Foreign Animal Disease Research Unit, Plum Island Animal Disease Center (PIADC), P.O. Box 848, Greenport, NY 11944, USA
Ediane Silva
U.S. Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service, Foreign Animal Disease Research Unit, Plum Island Animal Disease Center (PIADC), P.O. Box 848, Greenport, NY 11944, USA
Jason Clark
U.S. Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service, Foreign Animal Disease Research Unit, Plum Island Animal Disease Center (PIADC), P.O. Box 848, Greenport, NY 11944, USA
Manuel V. Borca
U.S. Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service, Foreign Animal Disease Research Unit, Plum Island Animal Disease Center (PIADC), P.O. Box 848, Greenport, NY 11944, USA
Douglas P. Gladue
U.S. Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service, Foreign Animal Disease Research Unit, Plum Island Animal Disease Center (PIADC), P.O. Box 848, Greenport, NY 11944, USA
African swine fever virus (ASFV) is the causative agent of an often lethal disease in domestic pigs, African swine fever (ASF). ASF is currently a pandemic disease challenging pig production in Eurasia. While the ASFV genome encodes for over 160 proteins, the function of most of them are still not characterized. Among those ASF genes with unknown functions is the E111R gene. It has been recently reported that the deletion of the E111R gene from the genome of the virulent Chinese field isolate SY18 strain produced a reduction of virus virulence when pigs were inoculated at relatively low doses. Conversely, we report here that deletion of the ASFV gene E111R in the Georgia 2010 isolate does not alter the virulence of the parental virus in experimentally inoculated pigs. A recombinant virus lacking the E111R gene, ASFV-G-∆E111R was intramuscularly (IM) inoculated in domestic pigs at a dose of 102 HAD50 of ASFV-G-∆E111R and compared with animals that received a similar dose of virulent ASFV-G. Both, animals inoculated with either the recombinant ASFV-G-∆E111R or the parental virus developed a fatal form of the disease and were euthanized around the 6th–7th day post-inoculation (dpi).
