Wildlife Disease Association & European Wildlife Disease Association
Abstract
Since mid \u201880 the European brown hare (Lepus europeaus) populations have been
progressively declining due to several causes, including the occurrence of EBHS.
After the first outbreaks in North Italy in the \u201990, the periodical EBHS cases imposed
the adoption of an articulate monitoring plan of the different hare populations,
including those from protected areas and the hunting territory. In addition to the
examination of dead animals for viral detection, such monitoring activity takes
advantage from serological survey i.e. by checking the presence of antibodies to
EBHSV. Since different types of blood sampling may be adopted according to each
situation, from 2005 to 2012, we planned to compare the serological titres obtained
by testing with cELISA: a) the \u201cclassical\u201d serum b) samples of blood dried onto
blotting paper and c) bloody fluid from the heart cavities. The major aim was to
establish the utility of each sampling method for verifying hares\u2019 health status and the
possibility to get data from low density areas, as hunting ones. We analysed the
following samples: a) + b = 305 animals; b) + c) = 182 animals; a) + c) = 95 animals.
Even if blotting paper and cardiac blood slightly underestimate the EBHSV antibody
titres, both these \u201calternative\u201d sampling methods may be useful for field studies.
Moreover, the slightly underestimates of antibody titres do not prevent to correctly
interpret the sero-epidemiological results with regard to the understanding of
spatial/time exposure of the population to EBHS and the ability of single hares to
resist the EBHSV infection
