Abstract: African swine fever （ASF） is a highly contagious and fatal hemorrhagic viral disease of domestic pigs caused by African swine fever virus （ASFV）. Since the mid-twentieth century, ASF has been disseminated in dozens of countries in Africa, Europe and America, and in recent years it spread to Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan and Russia. Once ASF invaded to China, it would cause great loss to the pig industry. The studies about the etiology and monoclonal antibodies of ASF make sense about the rapid diagnostic techniques of ASF virus and the development of vaccines. Advances in study on the etiology and monoclonal antibodies of ASF were summarized in this paper.