Table 2.

Summary of the most important differences and similarities between African swine fever (ASF) and classical swine fever (CSF)

	ASF	CSF	Both diseases
Virus
Virus taxonomy and morphology	Large DNA virus	Small RNA virus
Clinical signs and pathology			Among others high fever, appetite loss, lethargy, erythema, petechiae
Immune response and vaccination	Lack of neutralizing antibodies, no or insufficient cross-protection among strains, protection linked to cytotoxic T-cell responses No vaccination available	Existence of neutralizing antibodies, cross-protection among genotypes, safe and efficacious vaccines available
Epidemiology
Transmission and contagiosity			Direct and indirect transmission
	Most effective with blood contact, no evidence for intrauterine transmission	Virus shedding with all se- and excretions, intrauterine transmission and resulting persistent infection of fetuses possible
Vectors and carriers			Wild boar important reservoir
	Transmission through ticks possible	No transmission through arthropods or rodents described
Tenacity			Long infectivity in cold environmental temperatures
History and today’s distribution	For long time only endemic in Africa and Sardinia since 2007 present in Europe	Long-term epidemics in wild boar over the last decades, sporadic occurrence in domestic pigs; currently no outbreaks in domestic pigs, no cases reported in wild boar
Prevention and control measures	No vaccination	Effective vaccination
			High biosecurity, no swill feeding, no contact between domestic pigs and wild boar