TNF and infection: In contrast to our results, previous studies reported that infection of un-activated macrophages with attenuated ASFV strains results in enhanced expression of several key regulatory cytokines compared to virulent strains (IFN-α, IFN-β, TNF-α, IL-6, IL-12p40, IL-15) [2,3,4], thus in this study cytokine gene expression (IL-1β, IL-6, IL-12p40, IL-18, TNF-α) in ASFV-infected moMΦ was also monitored over time.