Over the past 15 years African Swine Fever (ASF) has developed into an epidemic affecting pig producers globally. Until that point ASF was confined largely to endemic infection in a number of sub-Saharan African countries. Since the first report of the genotype II virus being present in Georgia in the Caucasus region in 2007, ASF has extended its geographical distribution and is now present in large parts of Eastern, Central and Southern Europe. Furthermore, in 2018 ASF was introduced into China, and has since spread widely in the region. In 2021, a further long-distance jump occurred, and ASF was reported first in the Dominican Republic and later in Haiti. This massive geographical expansion over the past 18 years, makes ASF a truly global issue and the risk of further dissemination of into disease free areas is considered high.
TVG has been working in collaboration with world experts on the disease at The Pirbright Institute (Pirbright) in Surrey, England for more than six years to develop an African Swine Fever vaccine for the improved control of this global ASF epidemic. Last year our partners at The Pirbright Institute were awarded an Industry Partnership Award by BBSRC to work with us on our bovine herpesvirus-vectored vaccine against ASF. This vaccine delivers several antigenic proteins derived from the ASF virus and is inherently compatible with a DIVA approach to diagnostics and surveillance. Animal trials are now underway: pigs have been vaccinated already and will be challenged using a virulent genotype II ASF virus strain in a model developed recently at Pirbright to mimic natural routes of infection. The outcome of this clinical study will be made available publicly as soon as possible.
The development of an effective vaccine has enormous value from an animal welfare, food security and commercial perspective. There is no widely available vaccine against ASF even for the genotype II that is the cause of the current global epidemic. Recent limited introductions of a live attenuated vaccine in south east Asia have been associated with some safety concerns (https://doi.org/10.1038/s41541-025-01099-9), an issue that TVG’s vaccine would address. To keep abreast of the latest developments in ASF research our CEO Jeremy Salt will be attending the upcoming Global Alliance for ASF Research (GARA) Scientific Meeting at the FAO’s headquarters in Rome later this month, where he is due to join the GARA Executive Committee as Finance Director.
Dr Jeremy Salt, TVG Chief Executive Officer, said: “It is very exciting right now to be on the verge of seeing this pig challenge trial data with our jointly developed novel ASF vaccine. This represents the fruition of several years of successful collaborative work between TVG and Pirbright to get to this point. The continuing need for an effective ASF vaccine is very clear.”