# A novel easy-to-desorb eluant contributes to address environmental contamination of African swine fever virus

## TL;DR

A new eluant improves detection of African swine fever virus in the environment, helping prevent its spread in pig industries.

## Contribution

A novel eluant with higher detection efficiency for environmental ASFV compared to traditional saline solutions.

## Key findings

- The new eluant detected 100 times more viral copies in environmental swabs than 0.85% saline.
- The eluant showed similar extraction efficiency to a commercial soil DNA kit in soil samples.
- The eluant protected ASFV from degradation and allowed sample transport at ambient temperature.

## Abstract

African swine fever virus (ASFV) is a highly pathogenic and rapidly disseminated virus with strong viability in the environment, suggesting the importance of environmental detection for prevention and control in all the pig industry. However, the detection results of environmental swabs cannot always reflect the accurate status of viral pollution, leading to persistent ASFV environmental contamination. In this study, we developed an ASFV eluant with higher environmental ASFV detection efficiency relative to 0.85% saline solution, which obtains the patent certificate issued by the China Intellectual Property Office (patent number:202010976050.9). qPCR analysis showed that in the environmental swab samples, the number of viral copies was 100 times higher for the ASFV eluant treatment than the traditional eluant treatment (0.85% saline solution). And besides, the high sensitivity of the ASFV eluant had be verified in a slaughterhouse environmental sampling detection. In soil samples, the ASFV eluent showed the same extraction effect as the TIANamp Soil DNA Kit, in contrast to no extraction effect for 0.85% saline solution. Simultaneously, this eluent could protect ASFV from degradation and allow the transportation of samples at ambient temperature without refrigeration. In clinical practice, we monitored the environmental contamination condition of the ASFV in a large-scale pig farm. The results shown that the ASFV load decreased after every disinfection in environment. This study provides an effective solution for surveilling the potential threat of ASFV in environment.

The ASFV eluant can significantly improve the positive detection rate in environmental samples in clinical practice.The ASFV eluant is economical and convenient compared to commercial kit..The ASFV eluant can provide a caution for the environmental safety for China’s pig industries, slaughter houses, and transportations and facilitate ASFV eradication.

The ASFV eluant can significantly improve the positive detection rate in environmental samples in clinical practice.

The ASFV eluant is economical and convenient compared to commercial kit..

The ASFV eluant can provide a caution for the environmental safety for China’s pig industries, slaughter houses, and transportations and facilitate ASFV eradication.