15 years overview of European zoonotic surveys in wild boar and red deer: A systematic review

Wild boar (Sus scrofa) and red deer (Cervus elaphus) are the main large game species hunted in Europe. They can also be a source of zoonotic infections for cohabiting humans. The purpose of this systematic review was to examine the spatiotemporal tendencies and sanitary profiles of surveys on zoonotic diseases of wild boars and red deer in Europe in 15 years (2006–2020). Through the search strategy “((sus scrofa OR wild boar OR cervus elaphus OR red deer) AND (zoonosis OR zoonot* OR infectious disease))” in Pubmed and ScienceDirect databases, 1419 articles were assessed in February of 2021. Pursuing the inclusion criteria: species of interest – wild boar and red deer, established zoonosis and presence of natural infection and the exclusion filters: European study, specified a timeline (2006–2020), printed in English and with open-access. To conduct this systematic review, 194 European surveys issued in indexed journals were included after revising all abstracts and eliminating 323 unrepeated articles. Geographically, dissimilarity in the pattern of distribution of surveys was uttered. In the short term, the pattern of the number of publications about zoonotic diseases in wild boars and red deer oscillates, but with an increasing tendency over 15 years under study. When examining the sanitary profile of the eligible surveys, the focus is mostly on zoonoses such as Hepatitis E virus, Toxoplasmosis, Trichinellosis, Salmonellosis and Tuberculosis. With the high growth in the population of these large game species in Europe and the previous gaps in their sanitary profile, the number of surveys has been endorsed in the defined 15 years period. Based on the One Health concept and prioritizing the issue of the occurrence of zoonoses as a matter of Public Health, there must be increasing apprehension about that and enhanced knowledge about their potential risk for veterinarians, hunters and other agents involved in the hunting sector.