Background In Europe, the African swine fever (ASF) pandemic mostly affects the environmental domain of health, which is a strongly human‐impacted ecosystem. However, the current control strategies focus solely on the wild boar and tend to disregard other epidemiologically relevant elements of the ecosystem. Objectives This study investigated the potential impact of the golden jackal on the surveillance effort and disease transmission. Methods For this reason, the authors analysed the content of 277 stomachs of this canid species within its westernmost inhabitant population, in order to determine the amount of suid remains, disposed. Results The findings confirmed that in a densely populated wild boar habitat, the main diet component of jackals was wild boar all the year round. The jackals disposed of 0.3–0.6 kg/km2/day offals that potentially contained suid remains. On the other hand, the scavenging activity removed the most important target objects on which the passive surveillance of ASF should be based. Conclusions This study cannot determine whether canid scavengers positively or negatively influence the control efforts; however, the impact of the jackal should not be disregarded. The results warn the necessity of a multidisciplinary approach to complex epidemiological situations within different ecosystems.

In Hungary, the rabies control programme with oral bait immunisation of wild carnivores dates back to 1992. Since than, the rules of vaccine placement on bait density has not changed, in spite of drastic expansion of both the carnivore community and the wild boar population in Europe. Though, all these elements of the concerned ecosystem compete for the baits. This case study was based on the accidental finding of vaccine blisters in jackal stomachs during a large-scale investigation on jackals’ feeding ecology. The results showed 3.17% (0.57-10.87%) frequency of bait occurrence in jackal specimens harvested during the vaccination term. This finding contradicted previous reports on high bait uptake rate and rabies seroconversion in golden jackals. These results called the attention the need for paradigm shift in management of diseases maintained in a natural reservoir. In the authors’ opinion, for reassuring result, multidisciplinary research groups should re-evaluate disease control strategies time and again.

African swine fever (ASF) is a fatal animal disease without zoonotic potential but greatly impacts human well‐being, especially in the most vulnerable human communities. In Europe, ASF concerns mostly the wildlife domain of health. The main vector of the disease is confirmed to be the wild boar, though long‐distance jumps of the infection are due to anthropogenic effects. This study aimed to evaluate the potential role of hunting assistant personnel (beaters and carcass handlers) in ASF spread in Hungary. Based on a personal interview survey, we attempted to identify the epidemiological risk caused by hunting activities and the hunting personnel. The interviews with 58 hunting workers confirmed that an extent backyard pig sector (13 pig farmers) and pork production system (31 pork producers) existed within the study region out of the authorities’ sight. Two pig farmers did not wear special working clothes for pig caring, seven pork producers disposed of slaughter offal in the settlements periphery, and six persons regularly contacted distant pig farms. The revealed knowledge, attitude, and practice of the questioned pig farmers suggested that this sector would be very vulnerable in an epidemic situation; moreover, backyard farms would cause a great risk for wildboar populations. Considering that the study region is the third poorest region of Hungary, these findings called attention to the high epidemiologic risk of socioeconomic inequality between different regions within the European Union.

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Műfészek-predációs vizsgálatok egy erősenMozaikos soMogyi élőhelyen Jánoska ferenc, kemenszky péter, farkas attila, varju József és horváth zsolt Nyugat-magyarországi Egyetem, Erdőmérnöki Kar, Vadgazdálkodási és Gerinces Állattani Intézet kivonatEgy Somogy megyei, erősen mozaikos jellegű élőhelyen végeztünk műfészek-predációs vizsgálatokat. A vizsgálatok során arra voltunk kíváncsiak, hogy a talajon fészkelő szárnyasvad-fajok fészekaljaira mely fészek-fosztogatók lehetnek potenciálisan veszélyesek egy olyan területen, ahol mind az apróvad, mind a nagyvad számára alkalmas élőhelyek találhatók. A vizsgálatok során április és május hónapban 20-20 műfészket vizsgáltunk, melyekbe 2 db valódi tyúktojást, 1-1 db viaszés gyurmatojást helyeztünk el. A műfészkeket különböző élőhely-típusok találkozási szegélyeibe helyeztük el, és 4 naponta ellenőriztük a predációt. A leggyakoribb predátornak a vörös rókát (Vulpes vulpes) (51%) és a vaddisznót (Sus scrofa) (37%) azonosítottuk. Az élőhelyszegélyek esetében áprilisban a legmagasabb predációt az égeres és a gabona, illetve az égeres és a gyep szegélyekben, májusban az erdőfoltok belső mikroszegélyében tapasztaltuk, mindhárom esetben az eltérés statisztikailag szignifikáns volt. 2 hónapig azonos helyen hagyott műfészkek esetében azonban a predáció nőtt a fiatalos korú erdők belső mikroszegélyeiben is, de a növekedés nem volt statisztikailag szignifikáns.Kulcsszavak: műfészek, predáció, vörös róka, vaddisznó, szegélyhatás artificial nest predation investigations at a varied habitat in soMogy county, hungary abstractWe made artificial ground nest predation investigations at a varied habitat in Somogy County, Hungary. During the investigation we were interested in determining which predator species pose a potential risk for the nests of small game species (pheasant and grey partridge) in a territory, where the habitats are suitable for both small game and big game. We monitored 20-20 artificial ground nests in April and May.In each nest we put 2 chicken eggs, 1 wax egg and 1 plasticine egg, respectively. We placed the artificial nests at the edge zones of different habitats and checked the predation every 4 days. We found the Red Fox (Vulpes vulpes) (51%) and the Wild Boar (Sus scrofa) (37%) to be the most common predator species. We found in April the highest predation at the edges between the Alder forests and crop fields and the Alder forests and pastures and in May at inner micro edges of young afforestation, the differences were significant. The predation risk was also very high for artificial nests left at inner micro edges of young afforestation for 2 months, but the differences between the study periods were not significant.