The monitoring of selected zoonotic diseases of wildlife in Lombardy and Emilia-Romagna, northern Italy

Abstract

Several zoonotic agents that infect wildlife may be transmitted to humans through contaminated game meat. Toxoplasma gondii and Trichinella spp. infect the muscular tissue at some stage of their biological cycle and consequently contaminate meat, while enteric bacteria (e.g. Salmonella spp., verocytotoxic Escherichia coli (VTEC), Yersinia enterocolitica) may contaminate the carcase after the animal's death when the intestine is ruptured by shot pellets or during evisceration. Gutting and skinning of carcases may lead to contamination of humans with Mycobacterium bovis, Brucella spp., and Francisella tularensis, the etiological agents of bovine tuberculosis, brucellosis and tularaemia, respectively. We report here the occurrence of the above mentioned organisms over a 5-year period in some species of wild mammals of Lombardy and Emilia-Romagna, northern Italy. Trichinellae were recovered in 0.15% and 0.13% of samples from red foxes and wild boars, respectively. Antibodies to T. gondii were detected in a percentage ranging from 23.3% to 33.3% of wild ruminants and wild boars, and the parasite was also directly detected in European hares. Several serotypes of Salmonella spp. were recovered from cervids, red foxes and wild boars with prevalences from 1.46% to 18.7%. Faecal samples from roe deer tested negative for VTEC, while Y. enterocolitica was detected in about 8% samples from roe deer and from a few wild boars. M. bovis was rarely recovered from red deer and red foxes, and occasionally from wild boar, where M. microti, another species belonging to the Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex, occurred much more frequently. Antibodies to Brucella spp. were very rarely detected only in European hares, while F. tularensis was detected by PCR in about 7% European hares. This monitoring programme was conceived and implemented by the regional and local administrations in close collaboration with the official veterinary services and the hunters' associations.