Different naturally occurring, cell adapted or genetically manipulated stocks of African swine fever virus
were able to infect directly cultures of COS-1 cells, producing extensive cytopathic effects and amounts
from 106 to 107 of infective progeny virus per ml. The induction of late virus-specific proteins, demonstrated
by RT-PCR and immunoblotting, and the development of lysis plaques by all the virus samples
tested so far, allowed the optimization of both titration and diagnostic assays, as well as the proposal of a
method for selection of virus clones during the generation of virus mutants with specific gene deletions.This work was supported by grants from the European Community’s
Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007-2013) under
grant agreement KBBE-211691-ASFRISK and from Ministerio de
Educación y Ciencia (BFU2007-63110/BMC), and by institutional
grants from Fundación Ramón Areces and Banco Central Hispano. C.
Hurtado was funded by Centro de Investigación en Sanidad Animal
(CISA).Peer reviewe
