Genome sequence analysis of the genotype II African swine fever virus from India

African swine fever (ASF) is an alarming threat to the pig population across the world and especially in Asia where outbreaks are occurring continuously, including in the largest pig producing country, China. In Asia, the first outbreak of ASF occurred in 2018 in China and subsequently it spread over many other Asian countries including Mongolia, Cambodia, Vietnam and North Korea. In early 2020, the first devastating ASF outbreaks were reported from the north-eastern states of India, particularly from Assam and Arunachal Pradesh, causing huge economic loss to the piggery sector. In April 2020, the outbreaks were confirmed as African swine fever (ASF) by the ICAR-National Institute of High Security Animal Diseases, Bhopal, India. Here we are presenting a brief report on the draft genome sequence of an ASFV strain ABTCVSCK_ASF007 from Assam state of NE India belonging to the genotype II.