African swine fever virus: Virology, pathogenesis, clinical impact, and global control strategies

Vet World Vol.18 June-2025 Article - 19

Review Article

Veterinary World, 18(6): 1599-1613

https://doi.org/10.14202/vetworld.2025.1599-1613

Tridiganita Intan Solikhah¹, Firda Rostiani¹, Assyuria Fahma Putri Nanra¹, Adilah Dwi Putri Paras Dewi¹, Putri Haibah Nurbadri¹, Qurrotul Aini Dwi Agustin¹, and Gahastanira Permata Solikhah²

1. Department of Health and Life Sciences, Division of Veterinary Clinic, Faculty of Health, Medicine, and Life Sciences, Universitas Airlangga, Banyuwangi, Indonesia.

2. Cahaya Pet Clinic, Veterinarian, Mojokerto, Indonesia.

Background and Aim: African swine fever (ASF) is a highly contagious and lethal viral disease affecting domestic pigs and wild boars, with profound implications for global swine production and food security. Caused by the ASF virus (ASFV), a complex double-stranded DNA virus of the Asfarviridae family, the disease exhibits diverse clinical outcomes - from peracute death to chronic infection - depending on viral genotype and host immunity. ASFV primarily targets monocytes and macrophages, leading to severe lymphoid depletion, systemic inflammation, and vascular pathology mediated by cytokine storms. The virus demonstrates remarkable environmental resilience and is transmitted through direct contact, fomites, and biological vectors such as Ornithodoros soft ticks. With 23 genotypes identified to date, ASFV poses ongoing challenges to diagnosis, control, and vaccine development. Diagnostic methods, including polymerase chain reaction, enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay, and virus isolation, are essential for timely detection and containment. Despite advances in live-attenuated vaccine research, safe and broadly protective vaccines remain elusive. This review synthesizes current knowledge on ASFV’s molecular biology, transmission dynamics, immunopathogenesis, clinical presentations, and control strategies and underscores the urgent need for integrated surveillance systems, cross-sectoral collaboration, and innovative tools for outbreak prediction and disease mitigation.

Keywords: African swine fever virus, control strategies, epidemiology and transmission, pathogenesis, swine.

How to cite this article: Solikhah TI, Rostiani F, Nanra AFP, Dewi ADPP, Nurbadri PH, Agustin QAD, and Solikhah GP (2025) African swine fever virus: Virology, pathogenesis, clinical impact, and global control strategies, Veterinary World, 18(6): 1599-1613.

Received: 11-02-2025 Accepted: 16-05-2025 Published online: 16-06-2025

Corresponding author: Tridiganita Intan Solikhah E-mail: tridiganita-intan-s@fkh.unair.ac.id

DOI: 10.14202/vetworld.2025.1599-1613

Copyright: Solikhah, et al. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http:// creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated.