Questionnaire-based assessment of wild boar/domestic pig interactions and implications for disease risk management in Corsica

Wild boars and domestic pigs belong to the same species (Sus scrofa). When sympatric populations of wild boars, feral pigs, and domestic pigs share the same environment, interactions between domestic and wild suids (IDWS) are suspected to facilitate the spread and maintenance of several pig pathogens which can impact on public health and pig production. However, information on the nature and factors facilitating those IDWS are rarely described in the literature. In order to understand the occurrence, nature, and the factors facilitating IDWS, a total of 85 semi-structured interviews were implemented face to face among 25 strict farmers, 20 strict hunters, and 40 hunting farmers in the main traditional pig-farming regions of Corsica, where IDWS are suspected to be common and widespread. Different forms of IDWS were described: those linked with sexual attraction of wild boars by domestic sows (including sexual interactions and fights between wild and domestic boars) were most frequently reported (by 61 and 44% of the respondents, respectively) in the autumn months and early winter. Foraging around common food or water was equally frequent (reported by 60% of the respondents) but spread all along the year except in winter. Spatially, IDWS were more frequent in higher altitude pastures were pig herds remain unattended during summer and autumn months with limited human presence. Abandonment of carcasses and carcass offal in the forest were equally frequent and efficient form of IDWS reported by 70% of the respondents. Certain traditional practices already implemented by hunters and farmers had the potential to mitigate IDWS in the local context. This study provided quantitative evidence of the nature of different IDWS in the context of extensive commercial outdoor pig farming in Corsica and identified their spatial and temporal trends. The identification of those trends is useful to target suitable times and locations to develop further ecological investigations of IDWS at a finer scale in order to better understand diseases transmission patterns between populations and promote adapted management strategies

Spatial and temporal variations of aridity shape dung beetle assemblages towards the Sahara desert

Assemblage responses to environmental gradients are key to understand the general principles behind the assembly and functioning of communities. The spatially and temporally uneven distribution of water availability in drylands creates strong aridity gradients. While the effects of spatial variations of aridity are relatively well known, the influence of the highly-unpredictable seasonal and inter-annual precipitations on dryland communities has been seldom addressed. Aims: Here, we study the seasonal and inter-annual responses of dung beetle. Dung beetle abundance and species richness showed large seasonal variations, but remained relatively similar between years. Indeed, aridity and its interaction with season and year were the strongest correlates of variations in species richness and composition. Increasing aridity resulted in decreasing species richness and an ordered replacement of species, namely the substitution of the Mediterranean fauna by desert assemblages dominated by saprophagous and generalist species both in space towards the Sahara and in the dry season.Indradatta deCastro-Arrazola was funded by an FPI grant from the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation (BES-2012-054353). This work was supported by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation project SCARPO (grant CGL2011-29317)

Caractérisation des contacts entre suidés sauvages et domestiques: une approche des pratiques pour la compréhension des mécanismes de transmission d'une maladie

Maste

Animal Health Management up against the Corsican Mountains: Meeting the Health and Territorial Challenges of the Free-Range Pig Farming Sector

In the mountain and foothill areas of Corsica, livestock farming is still based on the use of pastureland, which gives the animals access to spontaneous resources. Faced with the multiplication of emerging diseases, public policy standards on animal health consider that the maintenance of free-range areas presents a risk of emergence because they allow interactions between wild and domestic animals. Focusing on pig farming, this article examines the contradictions between these standards and the issues specific to Corsican pastoral farming, and looks at the development of local public policy in response to these contradictions. After recalling the close link between the socio-economic transformations that took place in the Corsican mountains after the Second World War and current pastoral livestock farming practices, it shows that the failure of two public health management policies is linked to the disconnect between the issues at stake in public policy on the one hand and in pastoral livestock farming on the other. Local actors involved in health management are mobilising and developing intermediary consultation and coordination mechanisms to respond to situations of deadlock, by embedding national management and surveillance challenges in territorial dynamics. The article proposes the notion of health territory to describe the emergence of transversal collective action that draws on the knowledge of local actors to produce public policy that is adapted to the challenges of Corsican pastoral livestock farming

La gestion de la santé animale en butte avec la montagne corse : répondre aux enjeux sanitaires et territoriaux du secteur porcin sur parcours

In the mountain and foothill areas of Corsica, livestock farming is still based on the use of pastureland, which gives the animals access to spontaneous resources. Faced with the multiplication of emerging diseases, public policy standards on animal health consider that the maintenance of free-range areas presents a risk of emergence because they allow interactions between wild and domestic animals. Focusing on pig farming, this article examines the contradictions between these standards and the issues specific to Corsican pastoral farming and looks at the development of local public policy in response to these contradictions. After recalling the close link between the socio-economic transformations that took place inthe Corsican mountains after the Second World War and current pastoral livestock farming practices, it shows that the failure of two public health management policies is linked to the disconnect between the issues at stake in public policy on the one hand and in pastoral livestock farming on the other. Local actors involved in health management are mobilising and developing intermediary consultation and coordination mechanisms to respond to situations of deadlock, by embedding national management and surveillance challenges in territorial dynamics. The article proposes the notion of health territory to describe the emergence of transversal collective action that draws on the knowledge of local actors to produce public policy that is adapted to the challenges of Corsican pastoral livestock farming

Réduire la distance sociale et institutionnelle. Territorialiser l'action publique pour gérer la maladie d'Aujeszky en Corse. Reducing social and institutional distance. Territorialising public action to manage Aujeszky's disease in Corsica

International audienceAujeszky’s disease is a viral disease of swine, of which continental France is declared free but which Corsica has never been able to eradicate. After the government abandoned the fight against the disease on the island, arguing that the very extensive nature of pig farming made it impossible to act against interactions between wild and domestic fauna, local stakeholders built an experimental eradication plan. This new dispositive is based on a participative, territorialised approach of public action. It has two aims. The first is that by involving all local stakeholders (farmers, vets, researchers, government departments, etc.) in the design and governance of the plan, it will be easier to resolve the organisational problems identified as obstacles to eradicating the disease. The second is that by working on a micro-regional scale, the proximity between farmers will make it possible to convince them to vaccinate against this disease and create a virtuous circle of collective mobilisation in favour of eradicating the disease. The aim of this article is to analyse its implementation in 2020 in two micro-regions, focusing on the new forms of coordination between stakeholders facilitated by the territorialised governance of the dispositive. It shows that the contrasts between farms in the micro-regions were reflected in their choice to vaccinate their animals. It also shows that the geographical proximity between players has had an ambivalent effect on the involvement of farmers, and that the organisational distance between local governance and the national decision-making level has created a new situation in which public action is blocked.En 2020, la Corse expérimente un nouveau plan expérimental de gestion de la maladie d’Aujeszky, qui agit sur les performances zootechniques des élevages porcins et que l’île n’a jamais pu éradiquer. Ce dispositif repose sur une approche participative et territorialisée de l’action publique. Il fait le pari qu’en impliquant l’ensemble des acteurs locaux à la conception et la gouvernance du plan et qu’en travaillant à une échelle micro-régionale, il sera plus facile de convaincre les éleveurs de vacciner contre cette maladie et de créer un cercle vertueux de la mobilisation collective en faveur de l’éradication de la maladie. Cet article vise à produire une analyse de sa mise en oeuvre dans deux micro-régions en s’intéressant aux nouvelles formes de coordination entre acteurs favorisées par la gouvernance territorialisée du dispositif. Il montre que la proximité géographique a eu un effet ambivalent sur la mobilisation des éleveurs et que la distance organisationnelle entre la gouvernance locale et l’échelle de décision nationale a produit une nouvelle situation de blocage