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A seven-gene-deleted African swine fever virus is safe and effective as a live attenuated vaccine in pigs

Science China Life Sciences volume 63, pages 623–634 (2020)Cite this article

Abstract

African swine fever (ASF) is a devastating infectious disease in swine that is severely threatening the global pig industry. An efficacious vaccine is urgently required. Here, we used the Chinese ASFV HLJ/18 as a backbone and generated a series of gene-deleted viruses. The virulence, immunogenicity, safety, and protective efficacy evaluation in specific-pathogen-free pigs, commercial pigs, and pregnant sows indicated that one virus, namely HLJ/18-7GD, which has seven genes deleted, is fully attenuated in pigs, cannot convert to the virulent strain, and provides complete protection of pigs against lethal ASFV challenge. Our study shows that HLJ/-18-7GD is a safe and effective vaccine against ASFV, and as such is expected to play an important role in controlling the spread of ASFV.

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Acknowledgements

We thank Susan Watson for editing the manuscript. This work was supported by the National Key R&D Program of China (2018YFC1200601), Applied Technology Research and Development Project of Heilongjiang Province (GA19B301), Key-Area Research and Development Program of Guangdong Province (2019B020211004), and the grant from the State Key Laboratory of Veterinary Biotechnology Program (SKLVBP201801).

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  1. Contributed equally to this work

Authors and Affiliations

  1. State Key Laboratory of Veterinary Biotechnology, Harbin Veterinary Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Harbin, 150001, China

    Weiye Chen, Dongming Zhao, Renqiang Liu, Zilong Wang, Fang Li, Dan Shan, Hefeng Chen, Jiwen Zhang, Lulu Wang, Zhiyuan Wen, Xijun Wang, Jinxiong Liu & Zhigao Bu

  2. National High Containment Laboratory for Animal Diseases Control and Prevention, Harbin, 150069, China

    Xijun He, Xianfeng Zhang, Yuntao Guan & Zhigao Bu

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  1. Weiye Chen
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Correspondence to Zhigao Bu.

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Chen, W., Zhao, D., He, X. et al. A seven-gene-deleted African swine fever virus is safe and effective as a live attenuated vaccine in pigs. Sci. China Life Sci. 63, 623–634 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11427-020-1657-9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11427-020-1657-9

Keywords

  • African swine fever
  • vaccine
  • safety
  • protective efficacy
  • pig