A Retrospective Analysis Reveals That the 2021 Outbreaks of African Swine Fever Virus in Ghana Were Caused by Two Distinct Genotypes

Abstract

African swine fever virus (ASFV) is the causative agent of African swine fever (ASF), a highly infectious and lethal disease of domesticated swine. Outbreaks of ASF have been mostly restricted to the continent of Africa. The outbreaks that have occurred outside of Africa were controlled by extensive depopulation of the domesticated pig population. However, in 2007, an outbreak occurred in the country of Georgia, where ASFV infected wild pigs and quickly spread across eastern Europe. Since the reintroduction of ASF into Europe, variants of the current pandemic strain, ASFV Georgia 2007/01 (ASFV-G), which is classified as Genotype 2 based on p72 sequencing, have been reported in countries within western Europe, Asia, and the island of Hispaniola. Additionally, isolates collected in 2020 confirmed the presence of variants of ASFV-G in Nigeria. Recently, we reported similar variants of ASFV-G collected from domestic pigs suspected of dying of ASF in Ghana in 2022. Here, we retroactively report, based on full-length sequencing, that similar variants were present in Ghana in 2021. The SNP analysis revealed derivatives of ASFV with distinct genetic markers. Furthermore, we identified three full-length ASFV genomes as Genotype 1, indicating that there were two genotypes circulating in proximity during the 2021 ASF outbreaks in Ghana.

Keywords

• African swine fever
• ASFV
• Ghana
• genome