Natural oil blend formulation as an anti-African swine fever virus agent in in vitro primary porcine alveolar macrophage culture

Background and aim: African swine fever is one of the severe pathogens of swine. It has a significant impact on production and economics. So far, there are no known remedies, such as vaccines or drugs, reported working successfully. In the present study, the natural oil blend formulation's (NOBF) efficacy was evaluated against ASFV in vitro using porcine alveolar macrophages (PAMs) cells of swine.

Materials and methods: The capacity of NOBF against the ASFV was tested in vitro. The NOBF combines Eucalyptus globulus, Pinus sylvestris, and Lavandula latifolia. We used a 2-fold serial dilution to test the NOBF formulation dose, that is, 10⁵ HAD50/mL, against purified lethal dose of African swine in primary PAMs cells of swine. The PAM cells survival, real-time polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test, and hemadsorption (HAD) observation were performed to check the NOBF efficacy against ASFV.

Results: The in vitro trial results demonstrated that NOBF up to dilution 13 or 0.000625 mL deactivates the lethal dose 10⁵ HAD50 of ASFV. There was no HAD (Rosetta formation) up to dilution 12 or 0.00125 mL of NOBF. The Ct value obtained by running real-time PCR of the NOBF group at 96 h post-infection was the same as the initial value or lower (25), whereas the Ct value of positive controls increased several folds (17.84).

Conclusion: The in vitro trial demonstrated that NOBF could deactivate the ASFV. The NOBF has the potential to act as anti-ASFV agent in the field. The next step is to conduct in vivo level trial to determine its efficacy.