Interaction of historical and modern Sardinian African swine feverviruses with porcine and wild?boar monocytes and monocyte?derivedmacrophages

AbstractAfrican swine fever (ASF) is a contagious viral disease of wild and domestic pigs that is present in many parts of Africa,Asia and Europe, including Sardinia (Italy). Deletions in the EP402R and B602L genes have been found in almost all ASFvirus (ASFV) strains circulating in Sardinia from 1990 onwards, and modern Sardinian strains (isolated after 1990) mighthave acquired some selective advantage compared to historical ones (isolated before 1990). Here, we analysed the host cellresponses of wild boars and domestic pigs upon infection with virus variants. Higher intracellular levels of the late proteinp72 were detected after infection with the modern strain 22653/14 compared to the historical strain Nu81.2, although bothisolates grew at the same rate in both monocytes and monocyte-derived macrophages. Higher cytokine levels in the supernatantsof ASFV-infected pig monocytes compared to pig macrophages and wild-boar cells were detected, with no differencesbetween isolates