Sera collected from European wild boar (Sus scrofa) shot in Eastern Germany between January 1991 and December 1994 were tested for antibodies to pseudorabies virus (PRV). Of 3,143 sera tested, 281 (8.9%) and 13 (0.4%) were positive and suspect in an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA), respectively. The specificity of the reactions was confirmed by detection of neutralizing antibodies in 220 sera (74.8%) and by immunoblotting. Analysis of host age and sex of the animals, temporal and spatial factors showed significantly higher seroprevalences in older animals than in younger individuals, but no differences between males and females. Pseudorabies virus infections have been endemic in this wild boar population for several years and the extreme eastern part of the study area had significantly higher seroprevalences (< or = 22%) than other areas. In the area covered by this study, pseudorabies virus was eradicated in the domestic animal populations in 1985. Thus, the infections in the wild boar population appear to be endemic and persist completely separately and without affecting the domestic pig population.

M.L.B. and F.B. contributed equally to this work. Mycobacterium bovis is the etiologic agent of bovine tuberculosis, a chronic infectious disease, affecting livestock, wild animals, and sometimes humans. We report the draft genome sequence of a Mycobacterium bovis strain isolated from wild boar of spoli-gotype SB0120 (or BCG-like) also present in wildlife-livestock multi-host systems. M ycobacterium bovis is the causal agent of bovine tuberculosis (BT), a chronic infectious disease, affecting domestic animal species like cattle, wild animals, and sometimes human beings (1-4). France is an officially BT-free EU member, although every year several outbreaks occur in a few regions of the country (5). The description of the population of M. bovis circulating in France for the last 35 years highlighted that strains of spoligotype SB0120 (or BCG-like), comprising up to 53 different MIRU-VNTR genotypes (4, 6), are the most common. These genotypes of strains are widespread all over the country but, in the last 10 years, a few specific MLVA-profiles seem to spread in particular regions (7). In Dordogne (southwest of France), the main M. bovis strain isolated from infected animals is SB0120MLVA 5 3 5 3 9 4 5 6. This strain is present in wildlife-livestock multi-host systems, including wild boar, badgers, roe deer, and cattle (7, 8). We performed whole-genome sequencing of M. bovis in order to improve the knowledge of the genetic determinants involved in modulation of virulence, spread in multi-host systems and persistence over time. The strain SB0120MLVA 5 3 5 3 9 4 5 6 was isolated in Dordogne in 2010 from mandibular lymph nodes of a wild boar as described before (7). The isolate was grown in 10 mL of Middlebrook 7H9 liquid media (Becton-Dickinson, France) supplemented with 10% OADC (oleic albumin dextrose catalase) for 4 weeks. Bacteria were thermalized for 1 h at 80°C and chromosomal DNA was extracted by phenol-chloroform method. DNA sequencing was performed at Genoscreen (Lille, France) on an Illumina HiSeq 2500 (Illumina, San Diego, CA, USA), to get 2 100 paired-ends sequences for an average coverage of 80. Sequencing produced 1,929,897 paired-ends reads of 100 bp and 1,844,142 reads after filtering with sickle version 1.33 (9). We performed an alignment between filtered reads and the M. bovis AF2122/97 strain as reference using bowtie2 version 2.2.6 (10). The alignment gave us 3,670,788 reads mapped on the reference corresponding to 97.28% coverage. We then performed de novo assembly using Spades version 3.9.0 (2) on trimmed sequences with a k-mer size of 55. We obtained 135 contigs (the largest one being 205,553 bp) for a total length of 4,295,676 bp (using only contigs larger than 500 bp), a GC content of 65.55%, and an N 50 of 72,210 bp (QUAST version 4.2 [11]). Annotation was performed by the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) Prokaryotic Genome Annotation Pipeline (12) which predicted 3,842 coding DNA sequences (CDS) for 4,073 total genes, 45 tRNAs, and 180 pseudo-genes. Accession number(s). T...

Sera from wild geese were tested for antibodies to selected viral pathogens at a resting site for wild waterfowl in Germany. Serum samples from both bean geese (Anser fabalis) and white-fronted geese (Anser albifrons) collected in October 1991 were examined using serological methods licensed for routine diagnosis in domestic poultry. Of 130 sera tested, antibodies to several infectious agents were found including Newcastle disease virus (45%), goose parvovirus (48%), avian reovirus (29%), and avian adenovirus or egg drop syndrome 76 virus (6%). Antibodies against duck hepatitis virus were not detected. Differences in seroprevalences were not detected between the two geese species. While role and significance of wild geese in the epidemiology of avian diseases remains to be determined, it is possible that they could be of some importance as reservoirs and carriers of certain viral diseases of domestic poultry.

The sightings and migration patterns of 65 bean (Anser fabalis) and 65 white-fronted geese (Anser albifrons) are reported. In the past, these geese were serologically screened for the occurrence of Newcastle disease virus (NDV) and other avian viral diseases by Hlinak et al. (3). Of the 130 birds originally tagged and serologically screened in 1991, 53 birds were resighted between 1991 and 1996. Most of the sightings were reported from main wintering and resting sites in Germany and The Netherlands. It is noteworthy that 19 of the 53 birds sighted had serologic evidence that they had been exposed to NDV before the time of marking in 1991. Although the origin of these infections in bean geese and white-fronted geese is still unknown, the sightings reported in this study indicate that, once infected, wild geese may be involved in the dissemination and spread of avian viral diseases, specifically Newcastle disease. The migration patterns of the wild geese provided further evidence that the main resting and wintering areas of migratory waterfowl are likely to be important for the inter- and intraspecies transmission of avian diseases, thereby representing risk areas for the poultry industry.

Summary Serum samples from wild birds of 21 species were investigated for antibodies against a broad range of pathogenic microorganisms. Using routine diagnostic methods, antibodies against a choice of relevant viral and bacterial agents were detected. The epidemiology and the significance of infections in both wild birds and farm poultry are discussed. Zusammenfassung Serumproben von Wildvögeln aus 21 Arten wurden auf Antikörper gegen eine Pallete aviärer pathogener Mikroorganismen untersucht. Mittels Methoden aus der Routinediagnostik konnten im Probenmaterial Antikörper gegen eine Auswahl von relevanten viralen und bakteriellen Erregern nachgewiesen werden. Die epidemiologischen Zusammenhänge und die Bedeutung der Infektionen der Wildvögel für das Wirtschaftsgeflügel wird diskutiert.