| Abstract: | African swine fever(ASF) is a devastating infectious disease in swine that is severely threatening the global pig industry. An efficacious vaccine is urgently required. Here, we used the Chinese ASFV HLJ/18 as a backbone and generated a series of genedeleted viruses. The virulence, immunogenicity, safety, and protective efficacy evaluation in specific-pathogen-free pigs,commercial pigs, and pregnant sows indicated that one virus, namely HLJ/18-7GD, which has seven genes deleted, is fully attenuated in pigs, cannot convert to the virulent strain, and provides complete protection of pigs against lethal ASFV challenge.Our study shows that HLJ/-18-7GD is a safe and effective vaccine against ASFV, and as such is expected to play an important role in controlling the spread of ASFV. |
