RT Journal Article
T1 Oral fluid collection in wild boar: A field protocol
A1 Relimpio, David
A1 Kosowska, Aleksandra
A1 Barroso Arévalo, Sandra
A1 De Antonio-Gómez, Daniel
A1 Gortázar, Christian
A1 Barasona García-Arévalo, José Ángel
AB Traditional wildlife sampling methods have limitations in providing a well-distributed, timely and accurate disease surveillance in wildlife. We developed a field protocol for collecting wild boar (Sus scrofa) oral fluid samples for non-invasive active disease surveillance using environmental ropes. We deployed ropes in field settings and tested the rope-sampled oral fluids for antibodies against Mycobacterium bovis and closely related members of the Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex (MTC). Oral fluid samples were collected from three wild boars populations in Spain with endemic tuberculosis across two seasons with contrasting natural food availability. Additionally, we studied the effect of placing the ropes close to aggregation points and of impregnating the ropes with corn powder. The results suggested that installing environmental ropes in summer, close to feeders or aggregation points, and baited with corn powder significantly increases the proportion of bitten ropes. No significant differences were observed in the effectiveness of ropes for oral fluid sampling across the three study sites. The average rate of antibody detection by ELISA was 38 % (range 34-45 %) of the bitten ropes. This method appears to be both precise and sensitive in detecting antibodies against MTC in oral fluid samples collected from environmental ropes, making it a potentially valuable tool for early detection and monitoring of MTC circulation. This noninvasive sampling method can easily be adapted for other relevant diseases of wild suids including African swine fever. Therefore, environmental ropes represent an effective, inexpensive, flexible, environmentally friendly, and noninvasive alternative for active wildlife disease surveillance.
PB Elsevier
SN 1090-0233
YR 2025
FD 2025
LK https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14352/119789
UL https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14352/119789
LA eng
NO Relimpio, D., Kosowska, A., Barroso-Arévalo, S., De Antonio-Gómez, D., Gortázar, C., & Barasona, J. A. (2025). Oral fluid collection in wild boar: A field protocol. Veterinary journal (London, England : 1997), 312, 106362. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tvjl.2025.106362
NO CRediT authorship contribution statement:Gortazar ´ Christian: Writing – review & editing, Writing – original draft, Visualization, Validation, Supervision, Project administration, Investigation, Funding acquisition, Formal analysis, Conceptualization. Barasona Jose A.: Writing – review & editing, Writing – original draft, Validation, Supervision, Project administration, Methodology, Investigation, Funding acquisition, Formal analysis, Data curation, Conceptualization. Relimpio David: Writing – review & editing, Writing – original draft, Validation, Software, Investigation, Formal analysis, Data curation. Kosowska Aleksandra: Writing – review & editing, Writing – original draft, Supervision, Investigation, Conceptualization. BarrosoArevalo ´ Sandra: Writing – review & editing, Writing – original draft, Validation, Supervision, Methodology, Investigation, Conceptualization. De Antonio-Gomez ´ Daniel: Writing – review & editing, Writing – original draft, Visualization, Validation, Supervision, Investigation
NO European Commission
NO Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades (España)
NO Universidad de Castilla-La Mancha
DS Docta Complutense
RD 21 dic 2025