Development of a highly effective African swine fever virus vaccine by deletion of the I177L gene

This article describes the discovery that deletion of a previously uncharacterized gene, I177L, from the highly virulent ASFV-G produces complete virus attenuation in swine.

Animals inoculated intramuscularly with the virus lacking the I177L gene, ASFV-G-ΔI177L, remained clinically normal during the 28-day observational period.

All ASFV-G-ΔI177L-infected animals had low viremia titers, showed no virus shedding, developed a strong virus-specific antibody response and, importantly, they were protected when challenged with the virulent parent strain ASFV-G.