Epidemiological risk factors of Aujeszky’s disease in wild boars (Sus scrofa) and domestic pigs in Spain

Abstract

An Aujeszky's disease (AD) control and eradication campaign started in Spain in 1995, and as a result, AD virus (ADV) seroprevalences have notably diminished in Spanish domestic pig herds, but eradication has not yet been achieved. Since the presence of ADV in Spanish wild boar populations can impede schemes to eradicate ADV in domestic pig, we conducted analyses of risk factors and investigated associations between the patterns of ADV seroprevalence at the municipal level in the wild boar and the domestic pig, respectively, in south-central Spain. There was a clear influence of individual factors on the risk of wild boar to test positive to ADV. Concerning the domestic pig, higher ADV seroprevalences were observed with increasing numbers of pigs per farm. Indoor pig farms showed higher seroprevalences than open-air farms. Our results show that, at least at the study scale, the level of ADV seroprevalence in domestic pig farms is not influenced by the level of ADV seroprevalence in the coexisting wild boar populations. Also, there was no influence of domestic pigs ADV seroprevalence on the risk of wild boars to test seropositive. Finally, there was no evidence for a statistical association between ADV seroprevalence levels in wild boar and domestic pig at the municipal level in the study region. These findings are of interest for both veterinary and public health authorities. Nevertheless, more effort is needed in order to elucidate the nature of particular ADV outbreaks in domestic pigs in the study region due to possible contacts with wild boars, which will probably require a molecular approach.

Hepatitis E in wild ungulates: A review

“…It is widely recognized that high population density and aggregation of wild ungulates at watering and feeding points is a risk factor for some infectious diseases Ruiz-Fons et al, 2008). However, for HEV infection, few studies have analyzed risk factors in wild ungulates.…”

Shedding patterns of endemic Eurasian wild boar (Sus scrofa) pathogens

“…This demographic trend comes along with significant increase in pathogen prevalence and distribution Ruiz-Fons et al, 2006, 2007Meng et al, 2009), which is reflected by the spread of pathogens to naïve populations (Boadella et al, 2011;EFSA, 2014) or by increasing prevalence of endemic pathogens (Vicente et al, 2005;Boadella et al, 2012a;Pannwitz et al, 2012). These epidemiological changes may increase the risk of transmission of shared pathogens at the wild boarlivestock-human interface (Ruiz-Fons et al, 2008). Pathogens such as Aujeszky's disease virus (ADV), porcine parvovirus (PPV), porcine circovirus type 2 (PCV2) and Coxiella burnetii may impact wild boar population dynamics Schulze et al, 2010), threaten conservation of endangered species (Gortázar et al, 2010), interfere with pathogen control campaigns in domestic animals (Ruiz-Fons et al, 2008;Boadella et al, 2012b) or cause emerging disease outbreaks in humans (Tilburg et al, 2012).…”

“…These epidemiological changes may increase the risk of transmission of shared pathogens at the wild boarlivestock-human interface (Ruiz-Fons et al, 2008). Pathogens such as Aujeszky's disease virus (ADV), porcine parvovirus (PPV), porcine circovirus type 2 (PCV2) and Coxiella burnetii may impact wild boar population dynamics Schulze et al, 2010), threaten conservation of endangered species (Gortázar et al, 2010), interfere with pathogen control campaigns in domestic animals (Ruiz-Fons et al, 2008;Boadella et al, 2012b) or cause emerging disease outbreaks in humans (Tilburg et al, 2012). Understanding how and at which rate pathogens are transmitted both within wild boar and to incontact species is essential to understand pathogen ecology and design effective preventive and control strategies (Boadella et al, 2012c).…”

Detection of antibodies against pathogens in feral and domestic pigs (Sus scrofa) at the Sierra La Laguna Biosphere Reserve, Mexico

“…El grupo de cerdos asilvestrados libres fue el que presentó mayor número de animales con anticuerpos frente a las enfermedades estudiadas; este sesgo quizá esté relacionado con que este grupo es el que se encuentra mayormente distribuido en el lugar, con un rango de distribución probable desde los 1.1 hasta 5.32 km 2 25 . Los cerdos asilvestrados, al encontrarse en libertad, se desplazan tanto como les es posible, y por ello, tienen contacto con la fauna del lugar, la cual también puede portar agentes infecciosos y compartirlos 26 .…”