The first detailed report about a promising vaccination of pigs against ASF virus were recently published in Frontiers in Veterinary Science.

The study also provides evidence that acquired immunity can be transmitted through contact with other pigs, but should be more accurately study the transmission mechanism and the safety of repeated administration of the vaccine.

Dr. Jose angel Barasona, researcher of the Spanish centre Visavet health surveillance, co-author of scientific work, says: "ASF is of great importance for the global industry of pig farming. Our study demonstrates the effectiveness of the first oral vaccine against the disease in Eurasian wild boar. Overall, we report that oral immunization of wild boar have provided 92% protection against a highly pathogenic strain of African swine fever, which is currently circulating in Asia and Europe."

African swine fever affects more than 55 countries on 3 continents, including China, with almost half of the pigs in the world.

The virus is very contagious and transmission can occur from wild boars to domestic animals.

"Wild boar were most strongly affected by this virus in Europe, and to date, none of the measures showed no effectiveness. The importance of vaccination of wild boar was demonstrated in the 2000-ies, when classical swine fever has affected the various European countries, oral vaccine was used to reduce the incidence of wild populations in Germany", says Dr. Barasona.

The complex nature of the virus, the gaps in knowledge about infection and immunity, as well as technical difficulties hindered the development of vaccines. But in 2017, the boar, produced in Latvia, has become a valuable trophy from the point of view of science. The animal showed a weakly virulent strain of ASF, which enabled Spanish researchers to create a living vaccine.

"When we inoculated wild boar in our laboratories that living strain, they showed no symptoms of ASF, but has developed antibodies against the virus, which ultimately gave them protection from the more dangerous forms, said Dr. Barasona. – In addition, we identified an additional opportunity to immunize other boars through contact with orally vaccinated animals. This vaccine, which was introduced as bait wild animals represents a significant progress in the fight against ASF in the wild".

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