engleski

Monitoring of classical swine fever in wild boars in Croatia

This study presents CSF virological and serological test results of samples collected from wild boars in Croatia during the period of 1999 until mid 2006. Eventhough virus detection has proven to be negative since 2003 the serology results indicate that the virus still circulates within wild boar herds. This can be confirmed by the fact that 50.0% of seropositive animals were younger than 2 years of age within which 20.8% were even younger than 1 year. Serologically positive animals this age are indicators of recent viral transmission (3). Furthermore, the high percentage of positive male animals allows the possibility of further viral spreading, since males circulate among different herds during mating. As expected, the most affected areas of seropositive animals are the same as regions that have shown to have positive virology results during the investigated period. However, seropositive samples have been found in neighbouring areas that have never been considered as CSF positive. The negative virological tests can be a result of a limited period of possible viral isolation (only a few weeks after infection) and early death of young animals that are mostly the virus reservoirs. The results of this study show that wild boars may present a threat for CSF spreading in Croatia, and eventhough the diagnosis of CSF is based upon virological tests, for long term evaluation, a combination with serological data can be more useful.

classical swine fever; wild boars; monitoring; Croatia

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