African Swine Fever (ASF)
African Swine Fever is a highly contagious notifiable disease of pigs and wild boar caused by the ASF virus. While harmless to humans, the socio-economic impacts caused by ASF are huge.
In recent years, ASF has decimated swine populations throughout Africa, Europe and Asia, becoming a major crisis for the pork industry. Still in circulation, ASF remains a threat to animal health, food security, industry and biodiversity worldwide.
The virus is transmitted via direct contact between animals, indirect contact via contaminated clothing, vehicles, equipment etc., or via the bites of ticks.
Diagnostics are a vital part of the surveillance, prevention and control of infectious disease. Diagnosis of ASF however is currently limited to testing in laboratories. Global DX, in partnership with Algenex, have developed a rapid lateral flow test for the detection of antibodies against ASF virus.
GDX70-2 Herdscreen® African Swine Fever Antibody rapid test utilizes a recombinant ASF antigen, p30, to capture the antibodies developed during infection.
P30 is the major infection protein produced by the virus, is one of the first proteins inducing antibodies during infection and is highly antigenically preserved among ASF virus isolates.
Evaluations have demonstrated the analytical sensitivity of GDX70-2 Herdscreen® African Swine Fever Antibody to ve 86.2% and specificity 100% vs IPT. Furthermore, the test has been found to have a sensitivity equal to or greater than that of commercial ELISAs. Not only is the performance of this test therefore superior, but in a lateral flow format it is easy to use, provides rapid results, can be used in-the-field and is cost effective.
While antigen testing has been routinely employed for detection of ASF positive samples, low viral loads, illicit vaccines, sub-acute and asymptomatic cases have been contributing to the re-emergence and maintenance of the disease presence. By also testing for antibodies, we make it possible to better control the spread, and potentially eliminate ASF.
