title: Long-Term Surveillance of Aujeszky's Disease in the Alpine Wild Boar (Sus scrofa).
abstract: Although wild boar can act as a persistent Aujeszky's disease (AD) reservoir, limited data are available on long-term epidemiology in free-ranging wild boar living in areas where industrial swine herds are limited. Hence, this study provides crucial information, which fills this knowledge gap, on the natural dynamics of AD infection. From 3260 sera sampled during eight hunting seasons, 162 (4.97%) were tested positive. Factors, including the animal's age class, and the sampling year, had significant effects on the probability of the wild boar being seropositive, while wild boar mean abundance per area, yearly abundance and the total number of pig farms, as well as interactions among age, year and sex, were not significant. In particular, a positive trend of seroprevalence was observed over the years, with values ranging from 2.1 to 10.8%. This long-term surveillance showed an increase in seroprevalence with a higher probability of being seropositive in older individuals and the independence of wild boar seropositivity from the likelihood of contact with pigs in the area.
authors.affiliation: Istituto Zooprofilattico Sperimentale della Lombardia e dell'Emilia Romagna (IZSLER) "Bruno Ubertini", Via Bianchi 7/9, 25124, Brescia, Italy. mario.chiari@izsler.it.
authors.forename: Mario
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Chiari
authors.affiliation: Department of Veterinary Science and Public Health, Università degli Studi di Milano, Milan, Italy.
authors.forename: Nicola
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Ferrari
authors.affiliation: Istituto Zooprofilattico Sperimentale della Lombardia e dell'Emilia Romagna (IZSLER) "Bruno Ubertini", Via Bianchi 7/9, 25124, Brescia, Italy.
authors.forename: Marco
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Bertoletti
authors.affiliation: Istituto Zooprofilattico Sperimentale della Lombardia e dell'Emilia Romagna (IZSLER) "Bruno Ubertini", Via Bianchi 7/9, 25124, Brescia, Italy.
authors.forename: Dominga
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Avisani
authors.affiliation: Istituto Zooprofilattico Sperimentale della Lombardia e dell'Emilia Romagna (IZSLER) "Bruno Ubertini", Via Bianchi 7/9, 25124, Brescia, Italy.
authors.forename: Monica
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Cerioli
authors.affiliation: Istituto Zooprofilattico Sperimentale della Lombardia e dell'Emilia Romagna (IZSLER) "Bruno Ubertini", Via Bianchi 7/9, 25124, Brescia, Italy.
authors.forename: Mariagrazia
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Zanoni
authors.affiliation: Istituto Zooprofilattico Sperimentale della Lombardia e dell'Emilia Romagna (IZSLER) "Bruno Ubertini", Via Bianchi 7/9, 25124, Brescia, Italy.
authors.forename: Loris G
authors.initials: LG
authors.lastname: Alborali
authors.affiliation: Department of Veterinary Science and Public Health, Università degli Studi di Milano, Milan, Italy.
authors.forename: Paolo
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Lanfranchi
authors.affiliation: Istituto Zooprofilattico Sperimentale della Lombardia e dell'Emilia Romagna (IZSLER) "Bruno Ubertini", Via Bianchi 7/9, 25124, Brescia, Italy.
authors.forename: Davide
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Lelli
authors.affiliation: Istituto Zooprofilattico Sperimentale della Lombardia e dell'Emilia Romagna (IZSLER) "Bruno Ubertini", Via Bianchi 7/9, 25124, Brescia, Italy.|National Reference Laboratory for Aujeszky disease, Via Bianchi 7/9, 25124, Brescia, Italy.
authors.forename: Ana Moreno
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: Martin
authors.affiliation: Istituto Zooprofilattico Sperimentale della Lombardia e dell'Emilia Romagna (IZSLER) "Bruno Ubertini", Via Bianchi 7/9, 25124, Brescia, Italy.|National Reference Laboratory for Aujeszky disease, Via Bianchi 7/9, 25124, Brescia, Italy.
authors.forename: Lavazza
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Antonio
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D000818:Animals; D000835:Animals, Wild / Q000821:virology*; D000914:Antibodies, Viral / Q000097:blood*; D004797:Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay / Q000662:veterinary; D062665:Epidemiological Monitoring / Q000662:veterinary; D005260:Female; D011558:Herpesvirus 1, Suid / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D006801:Humans; D007558:Italy / Q000453:epidemiology; D008297:Male; D011557:Pseudorabies / Q000453:epidemiology*; D016036:Seroepidemiologic Studies; D012737:Sex Factors; D034421:Sus scrofa / Q000821:virology*; D013552:Swine / Q000821:virology*; D013553:Swine Diseases / Q000453:epidemiology*
chemical_list: D000914:Antibodies, Viral
keywords: Aujeszky’s disease; Pig farms; risk factors; serology; surveillance; wild boar