Rapid inactivation of high-load African swine fever virus by ozone-based advanced oxidation

African swine fever virus (ASFV)—the causative agent of devastating global swine-fever outbreaks— persists at concentrations ≥ 10⁷ HAD₅₀ mL⁻¹ in livestock wastewater and on farm surfaces, posing a serious environmental-health hazard. To test whether coupling ozone with common oxidants accelerates viral inactivation and lowers the concentration-time (CT) burden, we combine ozone (20 mg/L) with five oxidants—peracetic acid (PAA), potassium monopersulfate (PMS), sodium persulfate (PDS), sodium hypochlorite (NaClO) and hydrogen peroxide (H₂O₂). High-titer viral suspensions (1 × 10⁷ HAD₅₀ mL⁻¹) in ultrapure water were treated for up to 30 min; residual infectivity was quantified by fluorescence microscopy of porcine alveolar macrophages. All five oxidants intensified ozone disinfection. O₃ alone removed only 27.3 ± 1.6 % of ASFV (≈ 0.14‑log reduction, mean ± SD, n = 3) after 30 min, whereas O₃ + PAA or O₃ + PMS achieved 99.9 % (3-log) inactivation within 10 min. PDS and H₂O₂ offered moderate gains, where NaClO + O₃ showed no additional benefit compared with NaClO alone. Marked CT reduction suggests that ozone-based advanced oxidation processes (AOPs) could provide a rapid, practicable option for on-farm biosecurity. Future work should confirm radical pathways, such as through electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) spectroscopy or radical quenching studies, to elucidate the underlying mechanism and assess matrix effects in real-world applications.