Viability of a virus similar to the ASF virus in feed during transportation – Abstracts

African swine fever virus (ASV) belongs to the family of nucleocytoplasmic large DNA viruses (NCLDV, nucleocytoplasmic large DNA viruses in English) and is stable in a variety of media, including food ingredients, as shown by previous laboratory experiments and modeling. Virus Emilia Huxley (vEh) is another member of NCLDV whose host range is limited to a species of seaweed called Emilia Huxley. This algal NCLDV shares many similar morphological and physical characteristics with vPPA, making it a safe surrogate whose results are applicable to vPPA and suitable for use in field experiments. In this assay, EhV strain 86 (EhV-86) at a concentration of 6.6 × 107 g of virus^-1

was inoculated into a matrix of conventional soybean meal, organic soybean meal and composite pig feed, and then these samples were transported in a commercial truck over 23 days over a distance of 10,183 km, traveling through 29 states in various regions of the United States. Upon return, the presence and viability of virus in samples was assessed using a previously validated qPCR viability method.

The results showed that EhV-86 was detected in all matrices, and no impairment of EhV-86 viability was observed after transport for 23 days. Additionally, the change in virus abundance observed after 23 days of transport is better explained by sampling sensitivity (an unexpected increase of up to 49% in the matrix when virus was detected at the end of the sampling period) rather than by virus degradation. modeling.

These results demonstrate for the first time that ASFV-like NCLDVs can remain viable in food products during long-term transport across the United States.

Palowski A, Balestreri S, Urriola PE, van de Ligt JLG, Sampedro F, Di S, Shah A, Yancey HF, Shurson GC, Schroeder DS . Survival of a surrogate algal virus similar to African swine fever virus in feed matrices using a 23-day commercial freight model in the United States. Frontiers of microbiology. 2022; 13. https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fmicb.2022.1059118.