Abstract
African swine fever (ASF), a highly contagious and severe hemorrhagic viral disease in swine, is emerging as a major threat not only in Korea but also worldwide. The first confirmed case of ASF in Korea was reported in 2019. Despite the occurrence of ASF in Korea, only a few studies have genetically characterized the causative ASF virus (ASFV). In this study, we aimed to genetically characterize the ASFV responsible for the 2019 outbreak in Korea. The genome of the ASFV isolated during the first outbreak in Korea was analyzed. The Korea/YC1/2019 strain has 188,950 base pairs, with a GC content of 38.4%. The complete genome sequence was compared with other ASFV genomes annotated in the NCBI database. The Korea/YC1/2019 strain shared the highest similarity with Georgia 2007, Belgium 2018/1, and ASFV-wbBS01 strains. This study expands our knowledge of the genetic diversity of ASFV, providing valuable information for epidemiology, diagnostics, therapies, and vaccine development.