Detection of African swine fever virus and wild boar eDNA in soil and turbid water samples: towards environmental surveillance

Abstract

Since 2007, an ongoing African swine fever (ASF) pandemic has significantly impacted Eurasia. Extensive field evidence and modeling confirm the central role of wild boar in ASF epidemiology. To effectively control and eradicate the infection, rapid detection of the ASF virus (ASFV) is crucial for prompt intervention in areas of recent viral introduction or ongoing outbreaks. Environmental DNA (eDNA) is a cost-effective and non-invasive technique that has shown promising results in monitoring animal species and their pathogens and has the potential to be used for wildlife disease surveillance. In this study, we designed and evaluated an eDNA sampling method for highly turbid water and soil samples to detect ASFV and wild boar (Sus scrofa) DNA as a control using qPCR while ensuring biosafety measures and evaluating ASF epidemiology. To validate our method, we obtained samples from La Mandria Regional Park (LMRP) in northwestern Italy, an area free of ASFV, and spiked them in a laboratory setting with an ASFV’s synthetic DNA template. Our findings highlight the potential of eDNA monitoring as a reliable, rapid, and safe method for early detection of ASFV from soil and turbid water samples.

Non-invasive surveillance of shared pathogens in the Eurasian brown bear (Ursus arctos) human interface

“…However, the detection capacity of sponges in trees may be more susceptible to variables such as the sampling time, the environmental resistance of pathogens, the humidity, and other climatic or habitat factors compared to feces where pathogens are less exposed to environmental damages (e.g., sunlight). Furthermore, finding pathogens in sponge samples or even feces does not imply viable organisms at sufficient concentration for being infective, but pathogen presence in the bear ecosystem [ 20 ], confirming its utility for passive surveillance [ [20] , [21] , [22] ].…”

“…The survey of elusive species, such as the brown bear, has largely been favored by the development of non-invasive genetic material monitoring, such as feces or sponges [ [17] , [18] , [19] , [20] , [21] ], without the need to capture or disturb them [ 18 ]. This sampling approach allows to explore ecosystem-level processes such as host-pathogen relationships, making possible the early detection of pathogens and the identification of hotspots for disease transmission [ 19 , 20 , 22 ].…”