Cooper Susan M, Scott H Morgan, de la Garza Guadalupe R, Deck Aubrey L, Cathey James C
Texas AgriLife Research, 1619 Garner Field Road, Texas A&M University System, Uvalde, Texas 78801, USA. s-cooper@.tamu.edu
J Wildl Dis. 2010 Jan;46(1):152-64. doi: 10.7589/0090-3558-46.1.152.
The last outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) in the United States occurred in 1929. Since that time, numbers and distribution of feral swine (Sus scrofa) have increased greatly, especially in the southern states. This creates a potential risk to livestock production because swine are susceptible to, and can be carriers of, several economically harmful diseases of livestock. Most importantly, swine are potent amplifiers of FMD virus. In this study, global positioning system (GPS) collars were placed on rangeland cattle (Bos indicus x taurus) and feral swine to determine shared habitat use by these species on a large ranch in south Texas from 2004 to 2006. The aim was to identify locations and rates of interspecies contact that may result in effective transfer of FMD virus, should an outbreak occur. In shrubland and riparian areas, animals were dispersed, so contacts within and between species were relatively infrequent. Indirect contacts, whereby cattle and feral swine used the same location (within 20 m) within a 360-min period, occurred primarily at water sources, and seasonally in irrigated forage fields and along ranch roads. Direct contacts between species (animals <20 m apart and within 15 min) were rare and occurred primarily at water sources. Changes in ranch management practices are suggested to reduce interspecies contact should an FMD disease outbreak occur. This information can also be used to improve current epidemiologic models to better fit free-ranging animal populations.
美国上一次口蹄疫疫情发生在1929年。自那时以来，野猪（Sus scrofa）的数量和分布大幅增加，尤其是在南部各州。这给牲畜生产带来了潜在风险，因为猪易感染多种对牲畜经济有害的疾病，并且可能是这些疾病的携带者。最重要的是，猪是口蹄疫病毒的高效扩增宿主。在本研究中，2004年至2006年期间，在得克萨斯州南部的一个大牧场，给草原牛（Bos indicus x taurus）和野猪佩戴了全球定位系统（GPS）项圈，以确定这些物种的共同栖息地利用情况。目的是确定如果疫情爆发，可能导致口蹄疫病毒有效传播的种间接触地点和频率。在灌木丛和河岸地区，动物分布较为分散，因此种内和种间接触相对较少。间接接触（即牛和野猪在360分钟内使用同一地点（20米范围内））主要发生在水源处，并且在灌溉饲料地和牧场道路沿线有季节性变化。物种间的直接接触（动物相距<20米且在15分钟内）很少见，主要发生在水源处。建议改变牧场管理做法，以减少口蹄疫疫情爆发时的种间接触。这些信息还可用于改进当前的流行病学模型，以更好地适用于自由放养的动物种群。
