A team of USDA-ARS scientists at the Plum Island Animal Disease Center, NY. have achieved a breakthrough in developing an effective vaccine against African swine fever. The team under the direction of Dr. Douglas Gladue has adapted a candidate vaccine strain to replicate in a cell line. Previously, fresh porcine cell tissue culture was necessary to maintain the virus. By growing the virus candidate in a continuous cell line, it will be possible to manufacture vaccines on a commercial scale to protect herds.
African swine fever has caused considerable losses in China and adjacent nations in Asia, and in the Russian Federation and Eastern Europe. The disease has also impacted trade and indirectly contributed to increased production of white feathered broilers in China and pork exports to that nation from the EU and the U.S.
There is no available approved vaccine for African swine fever despite extensive research. There is evidence that non-approved vaccines comprising gene-deleted variants of the wild virus have been developed clandestinely in China and have been deployed, complicating the issue of diagnosis and eradication.