Insights and progress on epidemic characteristics, pathogenesis, and preventive measures of African swine fever virus: A review

The African swine fever virus (ASFV) is the only giant double-stranded DNA virus known to be transmitted by insect vectors. It can infect pigs and cause clinical signs such as high fever, bleeding, and splenomegaly, which has been classified as a reportable disease by the WOAH. In 2018, African swine fever (ASF) was introduced into China and rapidly spread to several countries in the Asia-Pacific region, with morbidity and mortality rates reaching 100 percent, resulting in significant economic losses to the global pig industry. Because ASFV has large genomes and a complex escape host mechanism, there are currently no safe and effective drugs or vaccines against it. Therefore, it is necessary to optimize vaccination procedures and find effective treatments by studying the epidemiology of ASFV to reduce economic losses. This article reviews research progress on pathogenesis, genome, proteome and transcriptome, pathogenic mechanisms, and comprehensive control measures of ASFV infection.