Whole genome sequencing and molecular epidemiology of the 2021 African
swine fever virus outbreak in the Dominican Republic
Abstract
African swine fever (ASF) is a high-consequence transboundary disease of
domestic and wild swine often characterized by high case mortality
rates. On July 29, 2021, the Dominican Republic announced the African
swine fever virus (ASFV) had been detected in samples collected in
early- to mid-July 2021. Retrospective testing of samples collected as
part of a collaborative surveillance project between the United States
and the Dominican Republic identified ASFV in samples collected as early
as May 13, 2021. These detections represent a new outbreak of ASF in the
Dominican Republic, which had been declared free of the disease since
1981. Overall, 73 whole genomes of ASFV were sequenced from clinical
samples received during the outbreak across 18 provinces. The genomic
sequence data have been deposited in public databases to support and
expand global data sharing on this impactful disease. While the
sequences show a high degree of nucleotide identity to publicly
available ASFV genomes from Europe and Asia, they are genetically
distant from genomes in the public repositories by at least 8 previously
undescribed single nucleotide polymorphisms.