Shedding patterns of endemic Eurasian wild boar (Sus scrofa) pathogens

The Eurasianwild boar has experienced aworldwide demographic explosion that increases awareness on shared pathogens. However, shedding routes of relevant wild boar pathogens are unknown. Previous observations on sex- and age-related differences in Aujeszky's disease virus (ADV) exposure led us to hypothesize that shedding patterns of endemicwild boar pathogens may be influenced by individual traits.We investigated shedding routes of ADV, porcine parvovirus (PPV), porcine circovirus type 2 (PCV2) and Coxiella burnetii and analysed the effect of host sex and age on pathogen shedding patterns. The presence of pathogen antibodies in serumand of pathogen DNA in oral, nasal, genital and rectal swabswas analysed by ELISA and PCR, respectively. The influence of sex and age in pathogen shedding prevalencewas tested statistically.Main routes of ADV, PPV, PCV2 and C. burnetii shedding were identified but the hypothesis of sex- and/or age-related shedding patterns couldn't be confirmed.