Immunoevasion strategies of African swine fever virus

Abstract:

African swine fever (ASF) is a highly contagious, fatal infectious disease of pigs caused by African swine fever virus (ASFV). There is no commercialized vaccine or economical control strategy other than slaughter, which poses a serious threat to the healthy development of the swine industry in China. A major difficulty in the development of ASF vaccines is insufficient knowledge about the virulence-associated genes, the pathogenesis and immunoevasion mechanisms of ASFV. This review summarizes the recent progress in ASFV immunoevasion, discusses the immunoevasion-related functions of ASFV genes and the encoded proteins, which will help understand immunoevasion strategies and mechanisms of ASFV, and provide insights into pathogenesis and vaccine development.