Modulation of the innate immune response by African swine fever virus

African swine fever (ASF) is a highly pathogenic disease causing haemorrhagic fever in domestic and wild swine. It is responsible for numerous epizootics, particularly in Europe and Asia, causing major economic losses for the pig industry. African Swine Fever virus (ASFV) is the etiological agent responsible for this disease. It is a very large double-stranded DNA virus, encoding for over 150 proteins. Various studies have shown that there is a close relationship between the ability of some viral proteins to inhibit the type I interferon (IFNI) response and the attenuation and virulence processes of ASFV. This review describes the mechanisms of inhibition of the IFN-I response by ASFV proteins, which provide a molecular explanation of how ASFV escapes the innate immune response.