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Characterization and management of interaction risks between livestock and wild ungulates on outdoor pig farms in Spain

BACKGROUND: To control the transmission of relevant shared diseases, such as animal tuberculosis (TB) and African swine fever (ASF), it is essential to reduce the risk of interaction between livestock and wild ungulates. In Eastern and Central Europe, the current spread of ASF virus affecting wild b...

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Autores principales: Jiménez-Ruiz, Saúl, Laguna, Eduardo, Vicente, Joaquín, García-Bocanegra, Ignacio, Martínez-Guijosa, Jordi, Cano-Terriza, David, Risalde, María A., Acevedo, Pelayo
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: BioMed Central 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8734068/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34986896
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s40813-021-00246-7
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author Jiménez-Ruiz, Saúl
Laguna, Eduardo
Vicente, Joaquín
García-Bocanegra, Ignacio
Martínez-Guijosa, Jordi
Cano-Terriza, David
Risalde, María A.
Acevedo, Pelayo
author_facet Jiménez-Ruiz, Saúl
Laguna, Eduardo
Vicente, Joaquín
García-Bocanegra, Ignacio
Martínez-Guijosa, Jordi
Cano-Terriza, David
Risalde, María A.
Acevedo, Pelayo
author_sort Jiménez-Ruiz, Saúl
collection PubMed
description BACKGROUND: To control the transmission of relevant shared diseases, such as animal tuberculosis (TB) and African swine fever (ASF), it is essential to reduce the risk of interaction between livestock and wild ungulates. In Eastern and Central Europe, the current spread of ASF virus affecting wild boar and domestic pigs (especially those raised outdoors and/or in backyards) has devastated the pig sector in affected regions and is seriously threatening other exporting countries. Here, we evaluated the risk of wildlife-livestock interactions on 45 outdoor pig farms in Spain, the second largest pork producer in the EU and then proposed biosecurity-related actions. An integrated, systematic wildlife risk mitigation protocol based on interviews, questionnaires and field audits was developed and applied on each farm. RESULTS: Most of the interaction risk points were associated with water sources (84.2%; 701/832), mainly springs and ponds, which accounted for almost all the specific points with high or very high risk scores. The risk of interaction at feeding points (6.9%; 57/832) and those associated with facilities for livestock and/or game management (8.9%; 74/832) were rated as low and very low risk, respectively. Wild boar were present and hunted on 69% of the farms. Supplementary feeding for wild ungulate species (mainly wild boar) was provided on almost half (48.9%; 22/45) the surveyed farms. Risk mitigation actions were categorised to target water access, waterers, food, other livestock species, grazing, wildlife, and offal disposal. Of the total number of actions (n = 2016), 82.7% were identified as priority actions while 17.3% represented alternative options which were identified less cost-effective. On average, 37.1 (median: 32; range 14–113) action proposals per study farm were made and 2.0 (median: 1; range 0–4) per risk point. The mean estimated cost of implementing the proposed priority actions was 14,780 €/farm (25.7 €/hectare and 799.4 €/risk point). CONCLUSIONS: This study expands the knowledge of interaction risks between domestic pigs and wild ungulates in outdoor pig farming systems and highlights the importance of considering local risks and management practices when designing and prioritising adapted wildlife risk mitigation and biosecurity actions. This practical and feasible protocol developed for Mediterranean ecosystems is easily transferable to professionals and can be adapted to extensive (outdoor) production or epidemiological systems in other European regions. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s40813-021-00246-7.
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spelling pubmed-87340682022-01-07 Characterization and management of interaction risks between livestock and wild ungulates on outdoor pig farms in Spain Jiménez-Ruiz, Saúl Laguna, Eduardo Vicente, Joaquín García-Bocanegra, Ignacio Martínez-Guijosa, Jordi Cano-Terriza, David Risalde, María A. Acevedo, Pelayo Porcine Health Manag Research BACKGROUND: To control the transmission of relevant shared diseases, such as animal tuberculosis (TB) and African swine fever (ASF), it is essential to reduce the risk of interaction between livestock and wild ungulates. In Eastern and Central Europe, the current spread of ASF virus affecting wild boar and domestic pigs (especially those raised outdoors and/or in backyards) has devastated the pig sector in affected regions and is seriously threatening other exporting countries. Here, we evaluated the risk of wildlife-livestock interactions on 45 outdoor pig farms in Spain, the second largest pork producer in the EU and then proposed biosecurity-related actions. An integrated, systematic wildlife risk mitigation protocol based on interviews, questionnaires and field audits was developed and applied on each farm. RESULTS: Most of the interaction risk points were associated with water sources (84.2%; 701/832), mainly springs and ponds, which accounted for almost all the specific points with high or very high risk scores. The risk of interaction at feeding points (6.9%; 57/832) and those associated with facilities for livestock and/or game management (8.9%; 74/832) were rated as low and very low risk, respectively. Wild boar were present and hunted on 69% of the farms. Supplementary feeding for wild ungulate species (mainly wild boar) was provided on almost half (48.9%; 22/45) the surveyed farms. Risk mitigation actions were categorised to target water access, waterers, food, other livestock species, grazing, wildlife, and offal disposal. Of the total number of actions (n = 2016), 82.7% were identified as priority actions while 17.3% represented alternative options which were identified less cost-effective. On average, 37.1 (median: 32; range 14–113) action proposals per study farm were made and 2.0 (median: 1; range 0–4) per risk point. The mean estimated cost of implementing the proposed priority actions was 14,780 €/farm (25.7 €/hectare and 799.4 €/risk point). CONCLUSIONS: This study expands the knowledge of interaction risks between domestic pigs and wild ungulates in outdoor pig farming systems and highlights the importance of considering local risks and management practices when designing and prioritising adapted wildlife risk mitigation and biosecurity actions. This practical and feasible protocol developed for Mediterranean ecosystems is easily transferable to professionals and can be adapted to extensive (outdoor) production or epidemiological systems in other European regions. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s40813-021-00246-7. BioMed Central 2022-01-05 /pmc/articles/PMC8734068/ /pubmed/34986896 http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s40813-021-00246-7 Text en © The Author(s) 2022 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Open AccessThis article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) . The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/ (https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) ) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated in a credit line to the data.
spellingShingle Research
Jiménez-Ruiz, Saúl
Laguna, Eduardo
Vicente, Joaquín
García-Bocanegra, Ignacio
Martínez-Guijosa, Jordi
Cano-Terriza, David
Risalde, María A.
Acevedo, Pelayo
Characterization and management of interaction risks between livestock and wild ungulates on outdoor pig farms in Spain
title Characterization and management of interaction risks between livestock and wild ungulates on outdoor pig farms in Spain
title_full Characterization and management of interaction risks between livestock and wild ungulates on outdoor pig farms in Spain
title_fullStr Characterization and management of interaction risks between livestock and wild ungulates on outdoor pig farms in Spain
title_full_unstemmed Characterization and management of interaction risks between livestock and wild ungulates on outdoor pig farms in Spain
title_short Characterization and management of interaction risks between livestock and wild ungulates on outdoor pig farms in Spain
title_sort characterization and management of interaction risks between livestock and wild ungulates on outdoor pig farms in spain
topic Research
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8734068/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34986896
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s40813-021-00246-7
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