Euroasiatic wild pigs and ASF virus genotype II: a new challenge

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Surveillance, monitoring and survey of wildlife diseases: a public health and conservation approach

During the past decades the interest in surveillance and monitoring of wildlife diseases has grown internationally. The main reasons could be the following: a) increased size of many wildlife populations that host pathogens affecting humans; b) the increased economic relevance of some wildlife disease; c) the role played by infections/diseases in the conservation of some wild endangered species. According to the above-described epidemiological situations there is an international need to develop appropriate strategies for the early detection, monitoring and surveys of infectious diseases in wildlife. The paper reviews the epidemiological assumptions on which disease surveillance, monitoring and surveys are, or should be, based. The main conclusions are: 1) wildlife disease surveillance and monitoring are long lasting activities that should be implemented when legal bases are available; 2) a wildlife disease introduced in a free area is more likely to be detected early using passive rather than active surveillance; 3) the definition of the "suspect case" largely affects the sensitivity of the whole passive surveillance; thus the suspected case definition should be modulated according to the level of risk; 4) in both active surveillance and monitoring, sampling plays an important role. The sensitivity of any active surveillance/monitoring system is highly dependent from the sampling unit that we define as: "the host target subpopulation, whose size can maintain the pathogen during a defined inter-sampling interval". Such definition merges the ecological, epidemiological and mathematical approaches aimed in controlling or eradicating infections in both livestock and wildlife; 5) When dealing with the conservation-disease interface, a standardized risk assessment procedure including risk mitigation has to become the rule

Cystic Echinococcosis in Spain: Current Situation and Relevance for Other Endemic Areas in Europe

Cystic echinococcosis (CE) remains an important health problem in many regions of the world, both where no control measures have been implemented, and where control programs have been incompletely successful with ensuing re-emergence of the disease. In Spain, official data on CE show an increase in the proportion of intermediate hosts with CE during the last few years, and autochthonous pediatric patients have been reported, a sign of active local transmission of disease. A similar picture emerges from data reported to the European Food Safety Authority by other European countries. Nevertheless, several crucial aspects related to CE that would help better understand and control the disease have not been tackled appropriately, in particular the emergence of infection in specific geographical areas. In this respect, while some data are missing, other data are conflicting because they come from different databases. We review the current situation of CE in Spain compared with areas in which similar problems in the CE field exist, and offer recommendations on how to overcome those limitations. Specifically, we believe that the introduction of national registries for CE with online data entry, following the example set by the European Registry for Alveolar Echinococcosis, would help streamline data collection on CE by eliminating the need for evaluating and integrating data from multiple regions, by avoiding duplication of data from patients who access several different health facilities over time, and by providing much needed clinical and epidemiological data that are currently accessible only to clinicians

New Insights on the Management of Wildlife Diseases Using Multi-State Recapture Models: The Case of Classical Swine Fever in Wild Boar

The understanding of host-parasite systems in wildlife is of increasing interest in relation to the risk of emerging diseases in livestock and humans. In this respect, many efforts have been dedicated to controlling classical swine fever (CSF) in the European Wild Boar. But CSF eradication has not always been achieved even though vaccination has been implemented at a large-scale. Piglets have been assumed to be the main cause of CSF persistence in the wild since they appeared to be more often infected and less often immune than older animals. However, this assumption emerged from laboratory trials or cross-sectional surveys based on the hunting bags.In the present paper we conducted a capture-mark-recapture study in free-ranging wild boar piglets that experienced both CSF infection and vaccination under natural conditions. We used multi-state capture recapture models to estimate the immunization and infection rates, and their variations according to the periods with or without vaccination. According to the model prediction, 80% of the infected piglets did not survive more than two weeks, while the other 20% quickly recovered. The probability of becoming immune did not increase significantly during the summer vaccination sessions, and the proportion of immune piglets was not higher after the autumn vaccination.Given the high lethality of CSF in piglets highlighted in our study, we consider unlikely that piglets could maintain the chain of CSF virus transmission. Our study also revealed the low efficacy of vaccination in piglets in summer and autumn, possibly due to the low palatability of baits to that age class, but also to the competition between baits and alternative food sources. Based on this new information, we discuss the prospects for the improvement of CSF control and the interest of the capture-recapture approach for improving the understanding of wildlife diseases

Association of kidney disease measures with risk of renal function worsening in patients with type 1 diabetes

Background: Albuminuria has been classically considered a marker of kidney damage progression in diabetic patients and it is routinely assessed to monitor kidney function. However, the role of a mild GFR reduction on the development of stage 653 CKD has been less explored in type 1 diabetes mellitus (T1DM) patients. Aim of the present study was to evaluate the prognostic role of kidney disease measures, namely albuminuria and reduced GFR, on the development of stage 653 CKD in a large cohort of patients affected by T1DM. Methods: A total of 4284 patients affected by T1DM followed-up at 76 diabetes centers participating to the Italian Association of Clinical Diabetologists (Associazione Medici Diabetologi, AMD) initiative constitutes the study population. Urinary albumin excretion (ACR) and estimated GFR (eGFR) were retrieved and analyzed. The incidence of stage 653 CKD (eGFR < 60 mL/min/1.73 m2) or eGFR reduction > 30% from baseline was evaluated. Results: The mean estimated GFR was 98 \ub1 17 mL/min/1.73m2 and the proportion of patients with albuminuria was 15.3% (n = 654) at baseline. About 8% (n = 337) of patients developed one of the two renal endpoints during the 4-year follow-up period. Age, albuminuria (micro or macro) and baseline eGFR < 90 ml/min/m2 were independent risk factors for stage 653 CKD and renal function worsening. When compared to patients with eGFR > 90 ml/min/1.73m2 and normoalbuminuria, those with albuminuria at baseline had a 1.69 greater risk of reaching stage 3 CKD, while patients with mild eGFR reduction (i.e. eGFR between 90 and 60 mL/min/1.73 m2) show a 3.81 greater risk that rose to 8.24 for those patients with albuminuria and mild eGFR reduction at baseline. Conclusions: Albuminuria and eGFR reduction represent independent risk factors for incident stage 653 CKD in T1DM patients. The simultaneous occurrence of reduced eGFR and albuminuria have a synergistic effect on renal function worsening

Host-parasite relationship and competition among parasites: a model for gastrointestinal nematodes of chamois.

A deterministic model considering the population dynamic of chamois and three parasite species (gastrointestinal nematodes) is presented. The model considers the logistic growth of host population, exploitation and/or interference competition among different parasite populations and intraspecific competition between parasite individuals. In vertebrates-parasites systems, intraspecific competition is well known and is probably mediated by host immunity. The sensitivity of the parameter alpha (representing the parasite induced host mortality) and the comparison with field data suggest that intraspecific competition plays an important role in determining host and parasites abundances and in stabilizing chamois-parasites relationship

Models of parasite biocoenosis dynamic: host density and gastrointestinal parasites in alpine chamois

Host density is an important and widely accepted factor influencing microparasites epidemiology. In theory, host density would influence also macroparasite dynamic, although it would be achieved indirectly due to the presence of free-living infective stages of parasites. On this basis, it is expected that macroparasite abundance and prevalence would increase as host density increases, due to the higher probability for a new host to acquire infections from the environment. Nevertheless, some surveys indicate a negative relationship between host density and gastrointestinal helminth abundance in alpine chamois. On the basis of data collected from three different chamois populations, the Authors discuss the possibility that ecological factors different from host density should influence parasite biocoenosis dynamic, leading to the pattern observed in natural chamois-parasite systems