A cross sectional study of the assessment of African
swine fever virus status in apparently healthy pigs in
three districts of Uganda
Joyce Akol1,3, Michel Dione1, Richard Bishop2, Cynthia Onzere2, Denis Muhangi3, Charles Masembe4
1International Livestock Research Institute, Kampala, Uganda
2International Livestock Research Institute, Nairobi, Kenya
3Makerere University, College of Veterinary Medicine Animal production and Biosecurity, Kampala, Uganda
4Makerere University, College of Natural Sciences, Kampala, Uganda
Introduction
• ASF virus is a hemorrhagic viral disease of
pigs
• ASF is the major disease constraint for
smallholder pig farmers in Uganda (Dione
et al., 2015)
• The current most common production
systems (tethering and free ranging) and
value chain actors practices are enabling
factors for ASF transmission
• There is no evidence of long term carriers
for ASFV in Uganda (Muhangi et al., 2014)
• There is lack of data to better understand
the epidemiology of ASF in Uganda
Methods
• A cross-sectional survey was conducted from
April to August 2013 in Masaka, Mukono and
Kamuli districts in Uganda.
• Blood and serum collected from 1200
apparently healthy pigs
• Antibody Elisa using using INGENASIA
protocols
• DNA was extracted from blood
• UPL Real Time PCR
• Genotyping on the DNA positive samples
• Sequencing of P54 and P72 regions of the ASFV
• Phylogenetic analyses
Conclusion
• The study elucidates the existence of ASFV in
apparently healthy animals, with a low virus
prevalence and no seroprevalence.
• The virus obtained from this study (genotype
IX) is the same with viruses previously
characterized in the country, which cause
outbreaks.
Purpose
• To assess the sero-prevalence and
antigen status of the apparently healthy
pigs in Masaka, Mukono and Kamuli
districts of Uganda
• To characterize the ASFV from the
apparently healthy pigs
Dr. Michel M. Dione
M.Dione@cgiar.org ● Box 24384 ● +256793344243
Kampala, Uganda ● ilri.org
This project was funded by IFAD
This document is licensed for use under a Creative Commons Attribution –Non commercial-Share Alike 3.0
Unported License June 2012
4th Medical and Veterinary Virus
Research (MVVR4) Symposium
15th and 16th October 2015
Hilton Hotel, Nairobi, Kenya.
Findings
• None of the 1200 samples from apparently
healthy pigs was positive using Antibody ELISA.
• One out 1200 samples was positive for ASFV
• Genotype IX was detected
Phylogenetic tree base of the C-terminal end of the p72 protein (ASF
KAMULI-p-72) with 15 sequences from East Africa belonging to
genotype IX. Evolutionary history was determined using neighbor-
joining model ,evolutionary distance by kimura 2-parameter and
bootstrap test set for 1000 replicate.
References
• Muhangi, D., Masembe, C., Ulf, E., Boqvist, S., Mayega, L., Ademun, R. O., Bishop, R.P., Ocaido, M., Berg, M. and Ståhl, K. (2015). Longitudinal survey of African swine fever in Uganda
reveals high apparent disease incidence rates in domestic pigs, but absence of detectable persistent virus infections in blood and serum. BMC Veterinary Research 2015, 11:106
• Dione, M.M., Ouma, E.A., Roesel, K., Kungu, J., Lule, P., Pezo, D., 2014. Participatory assessment of animal health and husbandry practices in smallholder pig production systems in three
high poverty districts in Uganda. Preventive Veterinary Medicine 117 565-576.
Phylogenetic tree base of the full length gene of p54 protein (ASF-
KAMULI 2013) with other 10 sequences belonging to genotype IX.
Evolutionary history was determined using neighbor-joining model,
evolutionary distance by kimura 2-parameter and bootstrap test set
for 1000 replicate.