A questionnaire survey for the assessment of wild - domestic pig
interactions in a context oedema disease outbreaks among wild boars (
Sus scrofa ) in South-Eastern France.
Abstract
Pig outdoor farming is gaining popularity and commercial success in the
EU and its expansion, together with an increasingly abundance of wild
boar populations facilitates interactions between domestic and wild
suids. In the Southern French Department of Ardèche, several episodes of
mass mortalities due to infection with an enteropathogenic strain of
Escherichia coli, causing oedema disease (OD) were reported in
wild boar populations between 2013 and 2016. In order to investigate a
potential link between those events and the frequency of interactions
between wild boar and domestic pigs, we analysed regional vegetation and
hunting bag data and implemented a semi-structured questionnaire survey
among a total of 30 outdoor pig farmers and 30 hunters distributed
inside and outside the identified area of OD emergence. One third of
interviewed farmers (11/30) had experienced intrusions of wild boars in
domestic pig premises during the previous year. Similarly, 23% of
interviewed hunters reported interactions between wild boar and feral
free ranging pigs in recent years and 60% reported the observation of
free ranging pigs with a phenotypic feature of Vietnamese pot-bellied
pigs (55%). Our analysis identified that the OD emergence area gathered
several factors that could facilitate interactions between wild and
domestic suids including a predominance of forested vegetation, a higher
estimated wild boar density, weaker levels of farm biosecurity and a
higher level of reported intrusions or interactions with wild boar in
pig farms. Despite our sample was limited, our study suggests that the
occurrence and dissemination of wild domestic suid interactions in this
region might be higher than expected and sufficient to facilitate the
circulation of shared pathogens between wild and domestic suids. Similar
studies in this and other rural regions in the EU are recommended, in
order to identify risk areas and anticipate preparedness for the
emergence and circulation of shared swine pathogens.