African swine fever (ASF) is a highly contagious and lethal viral disease of pigs and wild boars, which is enzootic in many African countries and on the Italian island of Sardinia, where it has been present since 1978. Previous genetic analyses of Sardinian ASF virus (ASFV) isolates have revealed that they all belong to p72 genotype I, with only minor sequence variations. However, these studies examined only a few selected genes. To distinguish between these closely related isolates and better investigate ASFV evolution in Sardinia, we sequenced the complete genomes of 12 Sardinian ASFV isolates collected between 1978 and 2012, and compared them with 47/Ss/2008 and 26544/OG10. Most of the observed changes occurred in a time‐dependent manner; however, their biological significance remains unclear. As a whole, our results demonstrate the remarkable genetic stability of these strains, supporting a single‐source introduction of the virus.

中文翻译：

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全基因组测序和比较分析揭示撒丁岛非洲猪瘟病毒的进化（1978-2014）

非洲猪瘟 (ASF) 是猪和野猪的一种高度传染性和致命性病毒性疾病，在许多非洲国家和意大利撒丁岛流行，该病自 1978 年以来一直存在。撒丁岛 ASF 病毒的先前基因分析(ASFV) 分离株显示它们都属于 p72 基因型 I，只有微小的序列变异。然而，这些研究仅检查了少数选定的基因。为了区分这些密切相关的分离株并更好地研究撒丁岛的 ASFV 进化，我们对 1978 年至 2012 年间收集的 12 个撒丁岛 ASFV 分离株进行了完整基因组测序，并将其与 47/Ss/2008 和 26544/OG10 进行了比较。大多数观察到的变化都是以时间依赖性方式发生的。然而，它们的生物学意义仍不清楚。总的来说，我们的结果证明了这些毒株具有显着的遗传稳定性，支持病毒的单一来源引入。