LaHue Nathaniel P, Baños Joaquín Vicente, Acevedo Pelayo, Gortázar Christian, Martínez-López Beatriz
Center for Animal Disease Modeling and Surveillance (CADMS), Department of Medicine and Epidemiology, School of Veterinary Medicine, University of California, Davis, CA, USA.
IREC-CSIC-UCLM, Ciudad Real, Spain.
Prev Vet Med. 2016 Jun 1;128:101-11. doi: 10.1016/j.prevetmed.2016.04.011. Epub 2016 Apr 22.
Eurasian wild boar (Sus scrofa) and red deer (Cervus elaphus) are the most important wildlife reservoirs for animal tuberculosis (TB) caused by the Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex (MTC), in Mediterranean Spain. These species are considered to play an important role in the transmission and persistence of MTC in cattle in some regions; however the factors contributing to the risk of transmission at the wildlife-livestock interface and the areas at highest risk for such transmission are largely unknown. This study sought to identify geographic areas where wildlife-livestock interactions are most likely to occur and to characterize the environmental and management factors at this interface contributing to persistence, incidence, and occurrence of TB on cattle farms, in one of the provinces with higher TB prevalence in Spain, Ciudad Real. We used spatially explicit, ecological niche models to evaluate the importance of factors such as wildlife demographics and hunting management, land use, climatic, and environmental variables as well as TB status in wildlife for TB breakdown (model 1), persistence (model 2) and new infection (model 3) on cattle farms and to generate high resolution maps of predicted TB occurrence to guide risk-based interventions. Models revealed that land use, particularly open area and woodland, high wild boar TB prevalence, and close proximity to fenced hunting estates were the most important factors associated with TB infection on cattle farms. This is the first time that local TB prevalence in wild boar for individual hunting estates has been significantly associated with TB occurrence on cattle farms at a local scale. Prediction maps identified two areas with high likelihood of TB occurrence in the southwest and northwest of the province where wildlife-livestock interactions and TB occurrence are highly likely and where TB preventative and mitigation strategies (e.g. targeted vaccination, increased biosecurity, etc.) should be prioritized. Methods and results of this study were aimed to inform the implementation of risk-based interventions to better prevent and control TB at the wildlife-livestock interface, a necessary step for the successful eradication of TB in cattle in Spain.
在西班牙地中海地区，欧亚野猪（Sus scrofa）和马鹿（Cervus elaphus）是结核分枝杆菌复合群（MTC）引起的动物结核病（TB）最重要的野生动物宿主。在某些地区，这些物种被认为在牛群中MTC的传播和持续存在方面发挥着重要作用；然而，在野生动物与家畜的交界处，导致传播风险的因素以及这种传播风险最高的区域在很大程度上尚不清楚。本研究旨在确定野生动物与家畜最有可能发生相互作用的地理区域，并描述在西班牙结核病患病率较高的省份之一雷阿尔城，该交界处导致奶牛场结核病持续存在、发病和发生的环境及管理因素。我们使用空间明确的生态位模型来评估野生动物种群统计学和狩猎管理、土地利用、气候和环境变量以及野生动物的结核病状况等因素对奶牛场结核病暴发（模型1）、持续存在（模型2）和新感染（模型3）的重要性，并生成预测结核病发生情况的高分辨率地图，以指导基于风险的干预措施。模型显示，土地利用，特别是开阔地和林地、野猪结核病高患病率以及靠近围栏狩猎区是与奶牛场结核病感染相关的最重要因素。这是首次在局部尺度上，个体狩猎区野猪的局部结核病患病率与奶牛场结核病的发生显著相关。预测地图确定了该省西南部和西北部两个结核病发生可能性高的区域，在这些区域野生动物与家畜的相互作用以及结核病的发生非常可能，应优先采取结核病预防和缓解策略（如靶向疫苗接种、加强生物安全等）。本研究的方法和结果旨在为实施基于风险的干预措施提供信息，以更好地预防和控制野生动物与家畜交界处的结核病，这是西班牙成功根除牛结核病的必要步骤。
