On August 3, 2018, an outbreak of African swine fever in pigs was reported in China. We subjected a virus from an African swine fever–positive pig sample to phylogenetic analysis. This analysis showed that the causative strain belonged to the p72 genotype II and CD2v serogroup 8.

Summary African swine fever was introduced into China in August 2018 and led to high mortality in domestic pigs. We reported the genome characterization of the China/2018/AnhuiXCGQ strain mainly based on next‐generation sequencing and comparison with related European p72 Genotype II strains. The genome was 189,393 bp long, encoding 181 open reading frames. Pair‐wise genome sequence comparison revealed 54–107 variation sites between China/2018/AnhuiXCGQ and the other genotype II virulent strains contributing to the change of expression or alteration of amino acid residues in 10–38 genes. China/2018/AnhuiXCGQ strain shared the highest similarity with POL/2015/Podlaskie strain. Phylogenetic analysis based on a 125 kb long conserved central region revealed that the China/2018/AnhuiXCGQ strain and four European genotype II strains were grouped into three clusters. This study expanded our knowledge on the genetic diversity and evolution of ASFV and provided valuable information for diagnosis improvement and vaccine development.

On 16 November 2018, a wild boar infected with African swine fever was reported in China. The phylogenetic analysis showed that its causative strain belonged to the p72 genotype II, CD2v serogroup 8 and contained no additional tandem repeat sequences between the I73R and the I329L protein genes, which was different from previously reported strains in China.

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