Selection of primers and probe for amplification of the B646L gene region of the ASF virus

African swine fever (ASF) is a contagious viral disease of pigs characterized by fever, hyperemia of the skin, multiple hemorrhages in internal organs, ataxia, severe depression and high mortality in acute cases. Improving the methods of diagnosis of the ASF virus is one of the most important stages in the fight and prevention of this disease. Along with routine diagnostic methods such as isolation, RGAD, RIF, real-time PCR developed in recent years is widely used for diagnostics in laboratories of various levels due to its effectiveness, high sensitivity and specificity. Due to the fact that new viral isolates demonstrate new genetic models, a redesign of primers is needed to be able to detect the currently widespread genotypes of the ASF virus. Primers and a probe for the ASF virus B646L gene encoding the p72 major capsid protein have been developed. Primers have been optimized based on thermodynamic parameters and secondary structure for high amplification efficiency. The results of testing the specificity of the developed primers in the GenBank database showed that the constructed oligonucleotides in the vast majority of cases were complementary to the B646L gene of the ASF virus.