Assembly of an African swine fever virus (ASFV) strain Arm/07/CBM/c2

The DNA sequencing of African swine fever virus (ASFV) strains is key either for epidemiologic studies, assessment of viral stocks composition or for the generation of live attenuated vaccines containing experimentally induced genetic modifications. For all purposes, accurate viral DNA purification is required to allow high level of coverages able to guarantee the results. By using an improved viral DNA purification method, we have identified different populations in the original Armenia/07 stock. Moreover, because our methodology did not include viral DNA enrichment based on genotype-specific sequences, it allowed the identification of ASFV sequences whose information could be lost when specific probes approaches are using. Individual viral clones were isolated from the stock and after high DNA purification and sequencing, it was confirmed the existence of at least two genetically different ASFV subpopulations. Genetic characterization confirmed one of the clones to be a homogeneous population, belonging to the parental stock, which was further characterized as Arm/07/CBM/c2. This strain displayed a high sequence identity with Georgia 2007/1 being very close phylogenetically.