African swine fever (ASF) is one of the most important viral diseases in domestic pigs and wild boar. Over the last decade, the disease has spread to several European and Asian countries and is now one of the major threats to profitable pig production worldwide. One of the more recently affected western countries is Belgium. To date, only wild boar (n = 829 confirmed positive

African swine fever virus (ASFV) is a complex double stranded DNA virus, responsible for a highly infectious and fatal disease in pigs and boars and for important deterioration of animal welfare. Over the last decade, the disease spread to several European and Asian countries causing unprecedented dramatic economic losses in pig industry. In the absence of a vaccine, affected countries rely on trustful diagnostic tests and adapted testing policies to set up control programs to fight against the disease. In this study, we evaluated the sensitivity and specificity of seven commercially available ASFV real-time PCR detection kits and three Taq polymerases on 300 well-characterized wild boar samples collected in Belgium during the 2018-2019 outbreak. This study confirms that all commercial kits and two Taq polymerases are suitable for ASFV detection in diagnostic laboratories. Furthermore, the use of endogenous controls is emphasized when testing field samples harvested on carcasses in an advanced stage of decomposition, in order to avoid false negative results.

African swine fever (ASF) is one of the most important and devastating viral diseases in wild boar and domestic pigs worldwide. In the absence of vaccines or treatment options, early clinical detection is crucial and requires a sound knowledge of disease characteristics. To provide practitioners and state veterinarians with detailed information, the objective of the present study was to characterize the ASF virus (ASFV) isolate “Belgium 2018/1” in subadult and weaning domestic pigs. To this end, two animal trials were performed. Trial A included eight subadult domestic pigs and trial B five weaner pigs. In general, clinical signs and pathological lesions were in line with previous studies utilizing highly virulent ASF genotype II viruses. However, in trial A, four subadult domestic pigs survived and recovered, pointing to an age-dependent outcome. The long-term fate of these survivors remains under discussion and would need further investigation.