Pathology of porcine peripheral white blood cells during infection with African swine fever virus.

African swine fever virus (ASFV) is the causative agent of African swine fever (ASF) that is the significant disease of domestic pigs. Several studies showed that ASFV can influence on porcine blood cells in vitro. Thus, we asked ourselves whether ASFV infection results in changes in porcine blood cells in vivo. A series of experiments were performed in order to investigate the effects of ASFV infection on porcine peripheral white blood cells. Nine pigs were inoculated by intramuscular injection with 10⁴ 50% hemadsorbing doses of virus (genotype II) distributed in Armenia and Georgia. The total number of fifteen cell types was calculated during experimental infection.