Molecular characterization of African Swine fever viruses in Burkina Faso, Mali, and Senegal 1989–2016.

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Résumé

African swine fever (ASF) has been endemic in sub-Saharan Africa since the 1960s.
Following its introduction in Senegal, in 1957, ASF steadily progressed throughWest
Africa, reachingBurkina Faso in 2003, and later Mali in 2016. Despite the heavy burden
of disease on pig production, little information is available on the genetic diversity of
Africa swine fever virus (ASFV) in Burkina Faso, Mali and Senegal. Here, we used realtime
PCR ASFV to detect the ASFV genome in samples collected between 1989 and
2016, in Burkina Faso, Mali and Senegal, and conventional approaches for isolate characterization.
The C-terminal end of the p72 protein gene, the full E183L gene and the
central variable region (CVR) within the B602L gene in ASFV genome were sequenced
and compared to publicly available sequences. ASFV genome was found in 27 samples,
19 from Burkina Faso, three from Mali and five from Senegal. The phylogenetic analyses showed that all viruses belong to genotype I, with the ASFVs from Burkina
Faso andMali grouping with genotype Ia and ASFV serogroup 4, and those from Senegal
with genotype Ib and the ASFV serogroup 1. The analysis of the CVR tetrameric
tandem repeat sequences (TRS) showed four TRS variants in Burkina Faso, two in
Senegal and one in Mali. The three countries did not share any common TRS, and all
CVRs of this study differed from previously reported CVRs inWest Africa, except for
Senegal. Three of the five isolates from Senegal fully matched with the CVR, p72 and
p54 sequences fromASFVIC96 collected during the 1996 ASF outbreak in Ivory Coast.
This study shows the spread of the same ASFV strains across countries, highlighting
the importance of continuous monitoring of ASFV isolates. It also calls for an urgent
need to establish a regional plan for the control and eradication of ASF inWest Africa.

Mots-clés

African swine fever, Burkina Faso, genotypes, Mali, Senegal