ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Vet. Sci.
Sec. Veterinary Infectious Diseases
Volume 12 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fvets.2025.1675115
Comparison of DNA extraction methods for detecting African swine fever virus in feed and environmental samples
Provisionally accepted
Taeyong Kwon*
Jordan T. Gebhardt*
Eu Lim LyooCassandra K. Jones
Jessie D. Trujillo
Natasha N. GaudreaultJuergen A. Richt*- Kansas State University, Manhattan, United States
Select one of your emails
You have multiple emails registered with Frontiers:
Notify me on publication
Please enter your email address:
If you already have an account, please login
You don't have a Frontiers account ? You can register here
African swine fever (ASF) is a fatal viral disease of domestic and wild pigs, with mortality rates reaching up to 100%. In the absence of a safe and effective vaccine in non-endemic countries, it is imperative for the swine industry to implement enhanced biosecurity measures to control and prevent ASFV outbreaks. Early detection is a key strategy to prevent the introduction of ASFV into naïve herds and confine the outbreak sites. Despite advanced modern technology for better diagnostics, knowledge regarding ASFV DNA detection in environmental samples is limited. Therefore, this study aimed to compare four DNA extraction methods for ASFV-contaminated feed and environmental samples: two magnetic bead-based extractions, one column-based PowerSoil Pro extraction, and one point-of-care M1 extraction. Three sets of samples were attained from our sample inventory saved from previous ASFV experiments: 1) surface samples contaminated with ASFV and different types of organic matter, 2) ASFV-contaminated feed and feed ingredients, and 3) feed mill surface samples collected during manufacturing of feed inoculated with ASFV. After DNA extraction, quantitative PCR was performed under identical conditions for all samples. ASFV DNA was detected by all four different extraction methods in the first two sets of sample collections. In these samples, significantly lower Cq values (P < 0.05) were detected in two magnetic bead-based extractions compared to column-based PowerSoil Pro and point-of-care M1 extractions. In parallel, better DNA detection was observed using magnetic bead extractions in the feed mill surface samples. We conclude that all extraction methods evaluated in this study can be used for the detection of ASFV in feed and environmental samples and higher sensitivity was observed using magnetic bead-based extraction which was also able to detect ASFV DNA in feed mill surface samples collected during manufacturing of ASFV-inoculated feed.
Keywords: African Swine Fever, ASFV, DNA extraction, Environmental sample, feed, PCR, surface
Received: 28 Jul 2025; Accepted: 29 Sep 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Kwon, Gebhardt, Lyoo, Jones, Trujillo, Gaudreault and Richt. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
Taeyong Kwon, tykwon@vet.k-state.edu
Jordan T. Gebhardt, jgebhardt@vet.k-state.edu
Juergen A. Richt, jricht@vet.k-state.edu
Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.