RT Journal Article T1 Accelerometer-based detection of African swine fever infection in wild boar A1 Morelle, Kevin A1 Barasona García-Arévalo, José Ángel A1 Bosch López, Jaime Alfonso A1 Heine, Georg A1 Daim, Andreas A1 Arnold, Janosch A1 Bauch, Toralf A1 Kosowska, Aleksandra A1 Cadenas Fernández, Estefanía A1 Martinez Aviles, Marta A1 Zuñiga, Daniel A1 Wikelski, Martin A1 Sánchez-Vizcaíno Rodríguez, José Manuel A1 Safi, Kamran AB Infectious wildlife diseases that circulate at the interface with domestic animals pose significant threats worldwide and require early detection and warning. Although animal tracking technologies are used to discern behavioural changes, they are rarely used to monitor wildlife diseases. Common disease-induced behavioural changes include reduced activity and lethargy (‘sickness behaviour’). Here, we investigated whether accelerometer sensors could detect the onset of African swine fever (ASF), a viral infection that induces high mortality in suids for which no vaccine is currently available. Taking advantage of an experiment designed to test an oral ASF vaccine, we equipped 12 wild boars with an accelerometer tag and quantified how ASF affects their activity pattern and behavioural fingerprint, using overall dynamic body acceleration. Wild boars showed a daily reduction in activity of 10–20% from the healthy to the viremia phase. Using change point statistics and comparing healthy individuals living in semi-free and free-ranging conditions, we show how the onset of disease-induced sickness can be detected and how such early detection could work in natural settings. Timely detection of infection in animals is crucial for disease surveillance and control, and accelerometer technology on sentinel animals provides a viable complementary tool to existing disease management approaches. PB Royal Society Publishing SN 0962-8452 SN 1471-2954 YR 2023 FD 2023-08-30 LK https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14352/107492 UL https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14352/107492 LA eng NO Morelle, K., Barasona, J. A., Bosch, J., Heine, G., Daim, A., Arnold, J., Bauch, T., Kosowska, A., Cadenas-Fernández, E., Aviles, M. M., Zuñiga, D., Wikelski, M., Vizcaino-Sanchez, J. M., & Safi, K. (2023). Accelerometer-based detection of African swine fever infection in wild boar. Proceedings. Biological sciences, 290(2005), 20231396. https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2023.1396 NO Authors’ contributions. K.M.: conceptualization, data curation, formal analysis, funding acquisition, investigation, methodology, project administration, writing—original draft, writing—review and editing;J.A.B.: conceptualization, data curation, formal analysis, methodology, project administration, resources, validation, writing—review and editing; J.B.: conceptualization, formal analysis, methodology, writing—review and editing; G.H.: data curation, methodology, writing—review and editing; A.D.: data curation, methodology, project administration, writing—review and editing; J.A.: data curation, methodology, project administration, resources, writing—review and editing; T.B.: data curation, methodology, writing—review and editing; A.K.: data curation, methodology, writing—review and editing; E.C.-F.: data curation, methodology, writing—review and editing; M.M.A.: conceptualization, formal analysis, investigation, methodology, writing—review and editing; D.Z.: conceptualization, investigation, methodology, writing—review and editing; M.W.: conceptualization, funding acquisition, investigation, project administration, supervision, writing—review and editing; J.M.V.-S.: conceptualization, funding acquisition, investigation, project administration, supervision, writing—review and editing; K.S.: conceptualization, investigation, methodology, project administration, supervision, writing—review and editing. All authors gave final approval for publication and agreed to be held accountable for the work performed therein. NO European Union NO Max Planck Society NO H2020 NO Austrian Research Promotion Agency DS Docta Complutense RD 5 abr 2025